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ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES, 

FOB 

Classes in English Literature, Beading, Grammar, etc* 

EDITED BY EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SOHOLARS. 

Each Volume contains a Sketch of the Author's Life, Prefatory and 
Explanatory Notes, etc., etc. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

■ &&- i 

§Jjap..7.vi_'_. ©ojajrirffi Ifo. 



1 Byron** Prophecy of Dante. 

(Cantos I. and II.) 

2 Milton's L' Allegro, and II Pen- 

seroso. 

3 Lord Bacon's Essays, Civil and 

Moral. (Selected.) 

4 Byron's Prisoner of Chillon. 

5 Moore's Fire "Worshippers, 

(Lalla Rookh. Selected.) 

6 Goldsmith's Deserted Village. 

7 Scott's Marmion. (Selections 

from Canto VI.) 

8 Scott's Lav of the Last TVTinRtrel. 

(Intr 

9 Burra 

and i 

10 CrabL 

11 Camp 

(Abr 

12 Macai 

Pilg 

13 Macai 

Poen 

14 Shake 

nice 
III.,i 

15 Golds 

16 Hogg' 

men 

17 Colerl 

18 Addis 

ley. 

19 Gray's JEiegy in a Uountry 

Churchyard. 

20 Scott's Lady of the Lake. (Canto 

21 Shakespeare's As Ton Like It, 

etc. (Selections.) 

22 Shakespeare's King John, and 

Richard II. (Selections.) 

23 Shakespeare's Henry IV., Hen- 

ry V., Henry VI. (Selections.) 

24 Shakespeare's Henry VIII., and 

Julius Caesar. (Selections.) 

25 Wordsworth's Excursion. (Bk.I.) 

26 Pope's Essay on Criticism. 

27 Spenser'sFaerieQueene. (Cantos 

I. and IL) 

28 Cowper's Task. (BookL) 

29 Milton's Comus. 

30 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, The 

Lotus Eaters, Ulysses, and 
Tithonus. 



(Seleo- 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



31 living's Sketch Book. 

tions.) 

32 Dickens's Christmas Carol. 

(Condensed.) 

33 Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. 

34 Macaulay's Warren Hastings. 

(Condensed.) 

35 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wake- 

field. (Condensed.) 

36 Tennyson's The Two Voices, 

and A Dream of Fair Women. 

37 Memory Quotations. 

lander's Feast, 

1 knoe. 

Ib of St. Agnes. 
1 of Sleepy Hol- 

from Shake- 



to Teach Read- 
ier Hill Ora- 

j Orthoepist. A 

Unciation. 

as, and Hymn 

y. 

itopsis, and other 

era Painters. 



Pa- 



49 The Shakespeare Speaker. 

50 Thackeray's Roundabout 
pers. 

51 Webster's Oration on Adams 
and Jefferson. 

52 Brown's Rab and his Friends. 

53 Morris's Life and Death of 
Jason. 

54 Burke's Speech on American 
Taxation. 

55 Pope's Rape of the Lock* 

56 Tennyson's Elaine. 

57 Tennyson's In Memorlam. 

58 Church's Story of the ^Eneid. 

59 Church's Story of the Iliad. 

60 Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to 
Lilliput. 

61 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Ba- 
con. (Condensed.) 

62 The Alcestis of Euripides. Eng- 
lish Version by Eev. R. Potter Ji. A. 

(.Additional numbers on next page.) 



English Classic Series-continued^ 



OS The Antigone of Sophocles. 

English Version by Thos. Franck- 
lin, D.D. 

64 Elizabeth Barrett Browning'. 
(Selected Poems.) 

65 Robert Browning. (Selected 
Poems.) 

66 Addison's Spectator. (Selec'ns.) 

67 Scenes from George Eliot's 
Adam Bede. 

68 Matthew Arnold's Culture and 
Anarchy. 

69 DeCjuincey's Joan of Arc. 

70 Carlyle's Escsy on Burns. 

71 Byron's Childe Harold's Pil- 

grimage. 

72 Poe'o Raven, and other Poems. 

73 & 74 Macaulay's Lord Olive. 

(Double Number.) 

75 Webster's Reply to Hayne; 

76 & 77 Macaulay's Lays of An- 

cient Rome. (Double Number.) 

78 American Pa' *•' "tic Selections: 

Declaration of Independence, 
"Washington's Farewell Ad- 
dress, Lincoln's Gottysburg 
Speech, etc. 

79 & 80 Scott's Lady of the Lake. 

(Condensed.) 

81 & 82 Scott's Marmion. (Con- 
densed.) 

83 & 84 Pope's Essay on Man. 

85 Shelley's Skylark, Adonals, and 

other Poems. 

86 Dickens's Cricket on the 

Hearth. 

87 Spencer's Philosophy of Style* 

88 Lamb's Essays of Elia. 

89 Cowp er's Task, Book II. 

90 Wordsworth's Selected Poems, 

91 Tennyson's The Holy Grail, and 
Sir Galahad. 

92 Addison's Cato. 

93 Irving's Westminster Abbey, 
and Christmas Sketches. 

94 & 95 Macaulay's Earl ,of Chat- 

ham. Second Essay. 

96 Early English Ballads. 

97 Skelton, Wyatt, and Surrey* 
(Selected Poems.) 

98 Edwin Arnold. (Selected Poems.) 

99 Caxton and Daniel. (Selections.) 

100 Fuller and Hooker. (Selections.) 

101 Marlowe's Jew of Malta. (Con- 

densed.) 

102-103 Macaulay's Essay on Mil- 
ton. 

104-105 Macaulay's Essay on Ad- 
dison. 

106 Macaulay's Essay on Bos- 
well's Johnson. 



107 Mandeville's Travels and Wy- 
cliffe's Bible. (Selections.) 

10C 109 Macaulay's Essay on Fred- 
erick tho Great. 

110-111 Milton's Samson Agonis- 
tes. I 

112-113-114 Franklin's Autobiog- 
raphy. 

115-116 Herodotus's Stories of 
Croesus, Cyrus, and Babylon. 

117 Irving' s Alhambra. 

118 Burke's Present Discontents. 
110 Burke's Speech on Concilia-;; 

tion with American Colonies. 
120 Macaulay's Essay on Byron. 
121-122 Motley's Peter the Great. 

123 Emerson's American Scholar. 

124 Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum. 
125-126 Longfellow's Evangeline. 

127 Andersen's Danish Fairy Tales. 
(Selected.) 

128 Tennyson's The Coming of 
Arthur, and Tho Passing of 
Arth-T. 

129 L well's The Vision of Sir 
Launfal, and other Poems. 

130 VJhittier's Songs of Labor, and 

other Poems. 

131 Word, of Abraham Lincoln 
13 Grimm's German Fairy Tales. 

(Selected.) 

1Z" 2Li!sop' Fables. (Selected.) 

13v> Arabian Nights. Aladdin, or 
th Wonderful Lamp. 

135-3C Tho Psalter. 

137-38 Scott's Ivanhoe. (Con- 
densed:) m M 

139-40 Scott's Kenilworth. (Con- 
densed.) ,„ 

141-42 Scott's The Talisman. (Con- 



143 Gods and Heroes of the North. 
144-45 Pope's Iliad of Homer. 

(Selections from Books I.-VIII.) 

146 Four Medheval Chroniclers. 

147 Dante's Inferno. (Condensed.) 
148-49 The Book of Job. (Revised 

Version.) _ 

150 Bow- Wow and Mew-Mew. By 
Georgiana M. Craik. 

151 The Niirnberg Stove. ByOuida. 

152 Hayne's Speech. To which 
Webster replied. 

153 Alice's Adventures in Won- 
derland. (Condensed,) By Lewis 

Carroll. 

154-155 Defoe's Journal of the 
Plague. (Condensed.) 

156-157 More' s Utopia. (Con- 
densed.) 



ADDITIONAL NUMBERS ON NEXT PAGE« 



MAYNARD'S ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES.— No. 162*163 

MACAU LAY'S HISTORY 

CHAPTER I 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM 
THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 1660 



®$Ct& SSfograpf))?, Critical Opinions, autr 
2£rj)lauatot£ Notes 





NEW YORK 
MAYNARD, MERRILL, & CO, 



/v 



THE 

or congress) 

WASHINGTON 



#& 



A Complete Course in the Study of English. 



Spelling, Language, Grammar, Composition, Literature. 



Reed's Word Lessons— A Compleie Speller. 
Reed's Introductory Language Work. 

Reed & Kellogg's Graded Lessons in English. 
Reed & Kellogg's Higher Lessons in English. 

Reed &. Kellogg's One-Book Course in English. 
Kellogg & Reed's Word Building. 

Kellogg & Reed's The English Language. 
Kellogg's Text-Book on Rhetoric. 
Kellogg's Illustrations of Style. 

Kellogg's Text-Book on English Literature. 



In the preparation of this series the authors have had one object 
clearly in view — to so develop the study of the English language as 
to present a complete, progressive course, from the Spelling-Book to 
the study of English Literature. The troublesome contradictions 
which arise in using books arranged by different authors on these 
subjects, and which require, much time for explanation in the school- 
room, will be avoided by tlie use of the above " Complete Course." 

Teachers are earnestly' invited to examine these books. 

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43, 45, and 47 East Tenth St., New York. 



Copyright, 1895, by Maynard, Merrill, & Co. 



LIFE OF LORD MACAULAY 



THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY was born at 
Kothley Temple, in Leicestershire, on October 25th, 
1800. His father, Zachary Macaulay, was a prominent 
member of that band of friends who spent the greater 
part of their life in labouring for the emancipation of the 
negro slaves. The young Macaulay was thus brought up 
among men who instinctively sacrificed personal convenience 
and private interest to public duty, and never thought of 
admiring themselves for it. 

His childhood was passed in or near London. From the 
time that he was three years old he read incessantly, and 
remembered without effort what he had read. " The secret 
of his immense acquirements," writes his biographer, " lay 
in two invaluable gifts of Nature — an unerring memory, 
and the capacity for taking in at a glance the contents of a 
printed page. ... To the end he read books more quickly 
than other people skimmed them, and skimmed them as fast 
as anyone else could turn the leaves. ' He seemed to read 
through the skin,' said one who had often watched the 
operation. And this speed was not in his case obtained 
at the expense of accuracy." Yet he was no mere book- 
worm. He was indeed utterly incapable of playing any 
athletic games, and " the only exercise in which he can be 
said to have excelled was that of threading crowded streets 



IV LIFE OF LORD MACATJLAT. 

with his eyes fixed upon a book." But he possessed, and 
retained long after he had come to man's estate, the high 
spirits and gaiety of a boy. He was, to quote his sister's 
words, " to old and young alike the sunshine of our home." 

After some years at a small school, Macaulay went into 
residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October, 1818. 
He had no taste for mathematics. "Discipline of the 
mind ! " he writes ; " say rather starvation, confinement, 
torture, annihilation!" Though he was "gulfed" in the 
tripos, he won several University prizes and a fellowship at 
Trinity (1824), and brought away from Cambridge what 
was more important — "self-knowledge, accuracy of mind, 
and habits of strong intellectual exertion." His definition 
of a scholar is characteristic, " One who reads Plato with 
his feet in the fender." 

His abilities were soon recognised outside Cambridge, and 
in 1825 his essay on Milton appeared in the Edinburgh 
Review, which was then at the height of its power. " The 
effect on the author's reputation was instantaneous. Like 
Lord Byron, he awoke one morning and found himself 
famous." He was from this time a welcome guest in the 
best society in London, and in 1830 — on the eve of the 
great Reform Bill — he entered Parliament for the pocket- 
borough of Calne, as a Whig. "If he speaks half as well 
as he writes," said Disraeli, "the House will be in fashion 
again." Macaulay's first Reform speech (March 1st, 1831) 
electrified the House. "Portions of the speech," said Sir 
Robert Peel, "were as beautiful as anything I have ever 
heard or read. It reminded one of the old times." After 
the Reform Act, Macaulay stood for Leeds. His relations 
with the electors whose votes he was courting may be 
gathered from the following words: "The practice of 



LIFE OF LOED MACAULAY. V 

begging for votes," he wrote to them, " is, as it seems to me, 
absurd, pernicious, and altogether at variance with the true 
principles of representative government. ... I have plainly- 
declared my opinions. But I think it, at this conjuncture, 
my duty to declare that I will give no pledges. I will not 
bind myself to make or to support any particular motion." 
He was elected, and admitted to office as Secretary of the 
Board of Control. He could not have continued in public 
life without some office ; he was as yet a poor man, and his 
family were largely dependent on him for support. But he 
was soon placed in a very trying position. The Ministry, 
pledged to the emancipation of the West Indian negroes, 
brought in a half-hearted measure for that object. It was 
a measure which the Abolitionists could not accept, and 
Macaulay, closely connected with that party through his 
father, tendered his resignation and spoke against the Bill. 
He believed that this step would be fatal to his public 
career, but he did not hesitate. His speech was one of the 
few that have turned votes ; the Ministry altered their 
measure to suit his views, and refused to accept his resigna- 
tion. " I have more reason than ever," Macaulay wrote to 
his father, " to say that honesty is the best policy." f 

At the end of 1833 he accepted the important post of 
member of the Supreme Council of India, at a salary o 
,£10,000 a year. In February, 1834, he left England with 
his sister, and returned in 1838. His work in these four 
years has left indelible marks on our Indian Empire. 

(1.) A great question was being debated when he came — 
Should Oriental learning be encouraged among the natives, 
or should European education be introduced, and European 
ways of thought consciously fostered 3 Macaulay threw 
himself into the European side, and worked with a will 

a 2 



VI LIFE OF LORD MACAULAY. 

to plan and create an educational system for the country. 
He showed a grasp of principles and details, and a sound 
common sense, which placed him high up in a rank of 
administrators. "I must frankly own," he writes, "that 
I do not like the list of books. Grammars of rhetoric and 
grammars of logic are among the most useless furniture 
of a shelf. Give a boy Robinson Crusoe; that is worth 
all the grammars of rhetoric and logic in the world. We 
ought to procure such books as are likely to give the 
children a taste for the literature of the West." (2.) 
Macaulay further proposed, and was the chief agent in 
carrying out, the codification of the Criminal Law of India. 
This was published just before his departure. " It has cost 
me," he writes, "very intense labour, and, whatever its 
faults be, it is certainly not a slovenly performance." Sir 
James Stephen, speaking of the Indian Penal Code, says, 
" Its practical success has been complete." 

When Macaulay returned to England the Whig Ministry 
was already beginning to totter. " Office was never," he 
writes, "within my memory, so little attractive, and there- 
fore I fear I cannot, as a man of spirit, flinch if it is 
offered to me." Much against his inclination, he entered 
Parliament as member for Edinburgh, and became Secretary 
at War with a seat in the Cabinet (1839). He was the 
object of violent and stupid abuse. Day after day for 
weeks the leading newspaper could find no other name fur 
him than "Mr. Babbletongue Macaulay." He was quite 
indifferent. "You think," he wrote to a friend, "a great 
deal too much about the Times. What does it signify 
whether they abuse me or not % " The Whigs went out of 
office in 1841. Macaulay continued to sit for Edinburgh, 
and in 1846 joined Lord John Russell's ministry. On the 






LIFE OF LORD MACAULAY. Vll 

occasion of his re-election he wrote to his sister, "I am 
exceedingly well, and in high spirits. I had become some- 
what effeminate in literary repose and leisure. You would 
not know me again, now that my blood is up." But when 
at the General Election in 1847 he was defeated at Edin- 
burgh, he regarded his defeat as a release from " bondage." 
Throughout his life a constant struggle was going on 
within his mind between the claims of politics and the 
claims of literature, and his natural bias was towards the 
latter. "The Tories," he writes to his sister Hannah in 
1833, "are quite welcome to take everything, if they will 
only leave me my pen and my books, a warm fireside, and 
you chattering beside it." When his sister Margaret died, 
he said, " Literature has saved my life and my reason. . . 
I am more than half determined to abandon politics, and 
to give myself wholly to letters. A life of literary repose 
would be most to my own taste. Of my literary repose I 
am, however, willing to sacrifice exactly as much as public 
duty requires me to sacrifice, but I will sacrifice no more " 
(1838). But his literary life was really closely intertwined 
with his political; for "history," to quote Freeman's well- 
known words, "is past politics, politics present history." 
And Macaulay as a writer was essentially a historian. " I 
have never written a page of criticism on poetry or the fine 
arts which I would not burn if I had the power" (1838). 
"He viewed the works both of man and of Nature with 
the eyes of an historian, and not of an artist." The famous 
Essays appeared in the Edinburgh Review between 1825 
and 1844. The History was the chief work of his life 
from 1839 onwards. He hoped to bring it down to the 
death of George IV., and make it "an entire view of all 
the transactions which took place between the Revohition 



Vlll LIFE OF LORD MACAT7LAY. 

which brought the Crown into harmony with the Parlia- 
ment, and the Eevolution which brought the Parliament 
into harmony with the nation." He succeeded only in 
finishing the reign of William III. The first two volumes 
appeared in December, 1848, three thousand copies being 
sold in the first ten days. On April 27, 1850, Macaulay 
notes, "The sixth edition of the History is gone. That 
makes 22,000 copies." The next two volumes appeared in 
December, 1855. The edition of 25,000 copies was soon 
sold out. His hope expressed in 1841 was more than 
fulfilled — "I shall not be satisfied unless I produce some- 
thing which shall for a few days supercede the last fashion- 
able novel on the tables of young ladies." 

In 1857 he was made Baron Macaulay of Rothley. 
Many others shared in his great success ; no one in distress 
appealed to him in vain. His generosity was often abused. 
"However," as he notes in his diary, "I have been 
prosperous beyond the common lot of men, and may well 
assist those who have been out of luck." 

But a change had been coming over him. In 1852 he 
was seized with a dangerous illness. "I became twenty 
years older in a week." His health never recovered com- 
pletely. His faculties and his power of working remained 
unimpaired. From 1854 he worked harder than ever at 
his History, giving up all society, and almost all letter- 
writing, for "a work which was the business and pleasure 
of his life." He died on December 28th, 1859, rich in 
fame and fortune and the love of friends. 

"The great difficulty of a work of this kind," writes 
Macaulay of his projected History in 1838, "is the be- 
ginning." The first chapter, which is here printed, is 
probably the least valuable part of the work to a student of 



LIFE OF LORD MACAULAY. ix 

history. But it may well be doubted whether any other 
writer could have compressed into so short a space so 
brilliant and, on the whole, truthful a sketch of the 
revolutions of English history. The style is more allusive 
here than in most of his work, but this was inevitable. 
There is never any doubt about his meaning ; and, in his 
own words, "The first rule of all writing is, that the words 
used by the writer shall be such as most fully and precisely 
convey his meaning to the great body of his readers." 
Macaulay was justly gratified at receiving from some 
working men in Lancashire a vote of thanks "for having 
written a history which working men can understand." 
His style is also vivid and full of force, though without the 
lightning flashes of Carlyle. "I never write to please 
myself until my subject has for the time driven every other 
out of my head." He never left a sentence till it was 
as good as he could make it. "He thought little of re- 
casting a chapter in order to obtain a more lucid arrange- 
ment, and nothing whatever of reconstructing a paragraph 
for the sake of one happy stroke or apt illustration." Thus, 
quite apart from the drudgery of historical research, the 
famous style was not formed without difficulty. " What 
trouble," he exclaimed once, "these few pages will have 
cost me ! The great object is that, after all this trouble, 
they may read as if they had been spoken off, and may 
seem to flow as easily as table-talk." He aimed "at 
interesting and pleasing readers, whom ordinary histories 
repel." He succeeded in quickening in countless minds 
the love of literature and the desire for knowledge. 



CRITICAL OPINIONS 



The first and most obvious secret of Macaulay's place on popular 
bookshelves is that he has a true genius for narration, and narra- 
tion will always, in the eyes not only of our squatters in the Aus- 
tralian bush, but of the many all over the world, stand first among 
literary gifts. The common run of plain men, as has been 
noticed since the beginning of the world, are as eager as children 
for a story, and like children they will embrace the man who will 
tell them a story with abundance of details and plenty of color 
and a realistic assurance that it is no mere make-believe. Ma- 
caulay never stops to brood over an incident or a character with 
an inner eye intent on penetrating to the lowest depth of motive 
and cause to the farthest complexity of impulse, calculation, and 
subtle incentive. The spirit of analysis is not in him, and the 
divine spirit of meditation is not in him. His whole mind runs in 
action and movement ; it busies itself with eager interest in all 
objective particulars. . . . Another reason why people have 
sought Macaulay is that he has in one way or another something 
to tell them about many of the most striking personages and 
interesting events in the history of mankind. And he does really 
tell them something. If any one will be at the trouble to count 
up the number of those names that belong to the world and time 
about which Macaulay has found not merely something, but 
something definite and pointed, to say, he will be astonished to see 
how large a portion of the wide historic realm is traversed in that 
ample flight of reference, allusions, and illustrations, and what 
unsparing copiousness of knowledge gives substance, meaning, 
and attraction to that blaze and glare of rhetoric. 

Macaulay came upon the world of letters just as the middle 
classes were expanding into enormous prosperity, were vastly 

x 



CEITICAL OPINIONS. XI 

increasing in numbers, and were becoming more alive than they 
had ever been before to literary interests. 

His essays are as good as a library ; they make an incomparable 
manual and vade-mecum for a busy uneducated man who has 
curiosity and enlightenment enough to wish to know a little about 
the great lives and great thoughts, the shining words and many- 
colored complexities of action, that have marked the journey of 
man through the ages. — John Morley. 

Wherever and whenever read, he will be read with fascina- 
tion, with delight, with wonder. And with copious reserve, with 
questioning scrutiny, with liberty to reject, and with much exer- 
cise of that liberty. The contemporary mind may in rare cases be 
taken by storm ; but posterity never. The tribunal of the present 
is accessible to influence ; that of the future is incorrupt. The 
coming generations will not give Macaulay up, but they will 
probably attach much less value than we have done to his ipse 
dixit. They will hardly accept from him his net solutions of 
literary, and still less of historic, problems, yet they will obtain 
from his marked and telling points of view great aid in solving 
them. We sometimes fancy that ere long there will be editions 
of his works in which his readers may be saved from pitfalls by 
brief, respectful, and judicious commentary, and that his great 
achievements may be at once commemorated and corrected by 
men of slower pace, of drier light, and of more tranquil, broadset, 
and comprehensive judgment. For his works are in many 
respects among the prodigies of literature ; in some they have 
never been surpassed. As lights that have shone through the 
whole universe of letters, they have made their title to a place in 
the solid firmament of fame. But the tree is greater and better 
than its fruit ; and greater and better yet than the works them- 
selves are the lofty aims and conceptions, the large heart, the 
independent, manful mind, the pure and noble career. — W. E. 
Gladstone. 

There is something almost sublime about the grand unreason- 
ableness of the average Englishman. His dogged contempt for 
all foreigners and philosophers, his intense resolution to have his 
own way and use his own eyes, to see nothing that does not come 



Xll CRITICAL OPINIONS. 

within his narrow sphere of vision, and to see it quite clearly be- 
fore he acts upon it, are of course abhorrent to thinkers of a dif- 
ferent order. But they are great qualities in the struggle for 
existence, which must determine the future of the world. The 
Englishman, armed in his panoply of self-content, and grasping 
facts with unequaled tenacity, goes on trampling upon acuter 
sensibilities, but somehow shouldering his way successfully 
through the troubles of the universe. Strength may be combined 
with stupidity, but even then it is not to be trifled with. Ma- 
caulay's sympathy with these qualities led to some annoying pe- 
culiarities, to a certain brutal insularity, and to a commonness, 
sometimes a vulgarity, of style which is easily criticised. But, at 
least, we must confess that, to use an epithet which always comes 
up in speaking of him, he is a thoroughly manly writer. There 
is nothing silly or finical about him. He sticks to his colors reso- 
lutely and honorably. If he natters his countrymen, it is the 
unconscious and spontaneous effect of his participation in their 
weaknesses. He never knowingly calls black white, or panders 
to an ungenerous sentiment. He is combative to a fault, but his 
combativeness is allied to a genuine love of fair play. When he 
hates a man he calls him knave or fool with unflinching frank- 
ness, but he never uses a base weapon. The wounds which he 
inflicts may hurt, but they do not fester. His patriotism may be 
narrow, but it implies faith in the really good qualities, the man- 
liness, the spirit of justice, and the strong moral sense of his 
countrymen. He is proud of the healthy, vigorous stock from 
which he springs, and the fervor of his enthusiasm, though it may 
shock a delicate taste, has embodied itself in writings which will 
long continue to be the typical illustration of qualities of which 
we are all proud at bottom — indeed, be it said in passing, a good 
deal too proud. — Leslie Stephen in " Hours in- a Library." 



CONTENTS 



Introduction • • « 

Britain under the Romans . • 

Britain under the Saxons . 

Conversion of the Saxons to Christianity 

Danish Invasions . 

The Normans 

The Norman Conquest 

Separation of England and Normandy 

Amalgamation of Races 

English Conquests on the Continent 

Wars of the Roses 

Extinction of Villenage 

Beneficial Operation of the Roman Catholic Religion 

Early English Polity often Misrepresented 

Limited Monarchies of the Middle Ages 

Prerogatives of the Early English Kings: How Limited 

Limitations not always Strictly Observed, and Why ? 

Resistance an Ordinary Check on Tyranny 

Peculiar Character of the English Aristocracy . 

The Government of the Tudors 

The Limited Monarchies of the Middle Ages generally 

turned into absolute monarchies 
The English Monarchy a Singular Exception 
The Reformation and its Effects . 
Origin of the Church of England . , 

Her Peculiar Character 
Relation in which She stood to the Crown . 
The Puritans .... 

Their Republican Spirit . ... 

No Systematic Parliamentary Opposition to the Govern 

ment of Elizabeth , , • • . 



PAGB 
V 

8 

4 
5 
9 
10 
11 
14 
15 
16 
19 
20 
21 
23 
26 
26 
28 
31 
34 
36 



66 



CONTENTS. 



same Empire 

AFTER THE 



Commons 



Question of the Monopolies 

Scotland and Ireland become parts of the 

with England 
Diminution of the Importance of England 

Accession of James I. 
Doctrine of Divine Right 
Separation between Church and Puritans becomes wider 
Accession and Character of Charles I. 
Tactics of the Opposition in the House of 
Petition of Right and its Violation 
Sir Thomas Wentworth 
Character of Laud 
Sta.r Chamber and High Commission 
Ship Money 

Resistance to the Liturgy in Scotland 
Parliament Called and Dissolved . 
The Long Parliament 

First Appearance of the two great English Parties 
The Irish Rebellion 
The Remonstrance . . 

Impeachment of the Five Members 
Departure of Charles from London 
The Civil War . 
Successes of the Royalists • 

Rise of the Independents . • 

Oliver Cromwell . . • 

Self -Denying Ordinance . • 

Victory of the Parliament 
Domination and Character of the Army 
Proceedings against the King 
His Execution 

Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland 
Expulsion of the Long Parliament 
The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell 
Richard Cromwell 
General Monk 
The Elections of 1660 
Restoration of the Kino 
Notes . 



HISTORY OF ENGLAND 1 



CHAPTER I. 

I purpose to write the History of England from the accession 
of King James the Second down to a time which is 
within the memory of men still living. I shall recount 
the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry 
and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace 
the course of that revolution which terminated the long 5 
struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, 
and bound up together the rights of the people and 
the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the 
new settlement was, during many troubled years, success- 
fully defended against foreign and domestic enemies ; how, 10 
under that settlement, the authority of law and the security 
of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of 
discussion and of individual action never before known ; 
how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, 
sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs lo 
had furnished no example ; how our country, from a state of 
ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire 
among European powers ; how her opulence and her martial 
glory grew together ; how, by wise and resolute good faith, 
was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels 
which to the statesmen of any former age would have 
seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a 
maritime power, compared with which every other maritime 
power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how 
Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to D 
England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties 

1 The text of the first edition has been followed on account of 
copyright. 

B 



2 macaulay's history. 

of interest and affection ; how, in America, the British 
colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than 
the realms which Cortes and Pizarro had added to the 
dominions of Charles the Fifth ; how, in Asia, British 
5 adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more 
durable than that of Alexander. 

Nor will it be less my duty faithfully to record disasters 
mingled with triumphs, and great national crimes and 
follies far more humiliating than any disaster. It will be 

10 seen that even what we justly account our chief blessings 
were not without alloy. It will be seen that the system 
which effectually secured our liberties against the encroach- 
ments of kingly power gave birth to a new class of abuses 
from which absolute monarchies are exempt. It will be seen 

15 that, in consequence partly of unwise interference, and 
partly of unwise neglect, the increase of wealth and the 
extension of trade produced, together with immense good, 
some evils from which poor and rude societies are free. It 
will be seen how, in two important dependencies of the 

20 crown, wrong was followed by just retribution ; how 
imprudence and obstinacy broke the ties which bound the 
North American colonies to the parent state ; how Ireland, 
cursed by the domination of race over race, and of religion 
over religion, remained indeed a member of the empire, but 

25 a withered and distorted member, adding no strength to the 
body politic, and reproachfully pointed at by all who feared 
or envied the greatness of England. 

Yet, unless I greatly deceive myself, the general effect of 
this chequered narrative will be to excite thankfulness in 

GO all religious minds, and hope in the breasts of all patriots. 
For the history of our country during the last hundred and 
sixty years is eminently the history of physical, of moral, 
and of intellectual improvement. Those who compare the 
age on which their lot has fallen with a golden age which 

35 exists only in their imagination may talk of degeneracy and 
decay ; but no man who is correctly informed as to the past 
will be disposed to take a morose or desponding view of the 
present. 



BRITAIN UNDER THE ROMANS. 3 

I should very imperfectly execute the task which I have 
undertaken if I were merely to treat of battles and sieges, 
of the rise and fall of administrations, of intrigues in the 
palace, and of debates in the parliament. It will be my 
endeavour to relate the history of the people as well as the 5 
history of the government, to trace the progress of useful 
and ornamental arts, to describe the rise of religious sects 
and the changes of literary taste, to portray the manners of 
successive generations, and not to pass by with neglect even 
the revolutions which have taken place in dress, furniture, 10 
repasts, and public amusements. I shall cheerfully bear 
the reproach of having descended below the dignity of 
history, if I can succeed in placing before the English of 
the nineteenth century a true picture of the life of their 
ancestors. 15 

The events which I propose to relate form only a single 
act of a great and eventful drama extending through ages, 
and must be very imperfectly understood unless the plot of 
the preceding acts be well known. I shall, therefore, in- 
troduce my narrative by a slight sketch of the history of 20 
our country from the earliest times. I shall pass very 
rapidly over many centuries ; but I shall dwell at some 
length on the vicissitudes of that contest which the 
administration of King James the Second brought to a 
decisive crisis. 25 

Nothing in the early existence of Britain indicated the 
greatness which she was destined to attain. Her in- 
habitants, when first they became known to the Tyrian 
mariners, were little superior to the natives of the Sand- 
wich Islands. She was subjugated by the Roman arms: 30 
but she received only a faint tincture of Roman arts and 
letters. Of the western provinces which obeyed the Caesars 
she was the last that was conquered, and the first that 
was flung away. No magnificent remains of Latian 
porches and aqueducts are to be found in Britain. No 35 
writer of British birth is reckoned among the masters of 
Latian poetry and eloquence. It is not probable that the 
islanders were at any time generally familiar with the 



4 MACAULAY S HISTORY. 

tongue of their Italian rulers. From the Atlantic to the 
vicinity of the Rhine the Latin has, during many centuries, 
heen predominant. It drove out the Celtic; it was not 
driven out by the German ; and it is at this day the basis 
5 of the French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. In our 
island the Latin appears never to have superseded the old 
Gallic speech, and could not stand its ground against the 
Anglo-Saxon. 

The scanty and superficial civilization which the Britons 

10 had derived from their southern masters was effaced by the 
calamities of the fifth century. In the continental king- 
doms into which the Roman empire was then dissolved, the 
conquerors learned much from the conquered race. In 
Britain the conquered race became as barbarous as the 

15 conquerors. 

All the chiefs who founded Teutonic dynasties in the 
continental provinces of the Roman empire, Alaric, Theo- 
doric, Clovis, Alboin, were zealous Christians. The 
followers of Ida and Cerdic, on the other hand, brought 

20 to their settlements in Britain all the superstitions of 
the Elbe. While the German princes who reigned at 
Paris, Toledo, Aries, and Ravenna listened with rever- 
ence to the instructions of bishops, adored the relics of 
martyrs, and took part eagerly in disputes touching the 

25 Nicene theology, the rulers of Wessex and Mercia were 
still performing savage rites in the temples of Odin and 
Zernebock. 

The continental kingdoms which had risen on the ruins 
of the Western empire kept up some intercourse with those 

80 eastern provinces where the ancient civilization, though 
slowly fading away under the influence of misgovernment, 
might still astonish and instruct barbarians, where the 
court still exhibited the splendour of Diocletian and Con- 
stantine, where the public buildings were still adorned with 

35 the sculptures of Polycletus and the paintings of Apelles, 
and where laborious pedants, themselves destitute of taste, 
sense, and spirit, could still read and interpret the master- 
pieces of Sophocles, of Demosthenes, and of Plato. From 



CONVERSION OF THE SAXONS. O 

this communion Britain was cut off. Her shores were, to 
the polished race which dwelt by the Bosporus, objects of a 
mysterious horror, such as that with which the Ionians of 
the age of Homer had regarded the Straits of Scylla and the 
city of the Lsestrygonian cannibals. There was one province 5 
of our island in which, as Procopius had been told, the 
ground was covered with serpents, and the air was such that 
no man could inhale it and live. To this desolate region the 
spirits of the departed were ferried over from the land of 
the Franks at midnight. A strange race of fishermen per- 10 
formed the ghastly office. The speech of the dead was 
distinctly heard by the boatmen : their weight made the 
keel sink deep in the water ; but their forms were invisible 
to mortal eye. Such were the marvels which an able his- 
torian, the contemporary of Belisarius, of Simplicius, and 15 
of Tribonian, gravely related in the rich and polite Con- 
stantinople, touching the country in which the founder of 
Constantinople had assumed the imperial purple. Concern- 
ing all the other provinces of the Western Empire we have 
continuous information. It is only in Britain that an age 20 
of fable completely separates two ages of truth. Odoacer 
and Totila, Euric and Thrasimund, Clovis, Eredegonda, and 
Brunechild, are historical men and women. But Hengist 
and Horsa, Vortigern and Rowena, Arthur and Mordred are 
mythical persons, whose very existence may be questioned, 25 
and whose adventures must be classed with those of 
Hercules and Romulus. 

At length the darkness begins to break : and the 
country which had been lost to view as Britain reappears 
as England. The conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to 30 
Christianity was the first of a long series of salutary 
revolutions. It is true that the Church had been deeply 
corrupted both by that superstition and by that philo- 
sophy against which she had long contended, and over 
which she had at last triumphed. She had given a 35 
too easy admission to doctrines borrowed from the 
ancient schools, and to rites borrowed from the ancient 
temples. Roman policy and Gothic ignorance, Grecian 



6 MACAULAY S HISTORY. 

ingenuity and Syrian asceticism, had contributed to deprave 
her. Yet she retained enough of the sublime theology and 
benevolent morality of her earlier days to elevate many 
intellects, and to purify many hearts. Some things also 
5 which at a later period were justly regarded as among her 
chief blemishes were, in the seventh century, and long 
afterwards, among her chief merits. That the sacerdotal 
order should encroach on the functions of the civil magis- 
trate would, in our time, be a great evil. But that which 

10 in an age of good government is an evil may, in an age of 
grossly bad government, be a blessing. It is better that 
mankind should be governed by wise laws well adminis- 
tered, and by an enlightened public opinion, than by 
priestcraft : but it is better that men should be governed by 

15 priestcraft than by brute violence, by such a prelate as 
Dunstan than by such a warrior as Penda. A society sunk 
in ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force, has great 
reason to rejoice when a class, of which the influence is 
intellectual and moral, rises to ascendency. Such a class 

20 will doubtless abuse its power : but mental power, even 
when abused, is still a nobler and better power than that 
which consists merely in corporeal strength. We read in 
the Anglo-Saxon chronicles of tyrants, who, when at the 
height of greatness, were smitten with remorse, who 

25 abhorred the pleasures and dignities which they had pur- 
chased by guilt, who abdicated their crowns, and who 
sought to atone for their offences by cruel penances and 
incessant prayers. These stories have drawn forth bitter 
expressions of contempt from some writers who, while they 

GO boasted of liberality, were in truth as narrow-minded as any 
monk of the dark ages, and whose habit was to apply to all 
events in the history of the world the standard received in 
the Parisian society of the eighteenth century. Yet surely 
a system which, however deformed by superstition, in- 

35 troduced strong moral restraints into communities previously 
governed only by vigour of muscle and by audacity of 
spirit, a system which taught the fiercest and mightiest 
ruler that he was, like his meanest bondman, a responsible 



CONVERSION OF THE SAXONS. 7 

being, might have seemed to deserve a more respectful 
mention from philosophers and philanthropists. 

The same observations will apply to the contempt with 
which, in the last century, it was fashionable to speak of the 
pilgrimages, the sanctuaries, the crusades, and the monastic 5 
institutions of the middle ages. In times when men were 
scarcely ever induced to travel by liberal curiosity, or by 
the pursuit of gain, it was better that the rude inhabitant 
of the North should visit Italy and the East as a pilgrim, 
than that he should never see anything but those squalid 10 
cabins and uncleared woods amidst which he was born. In 
times when life and when female honour were exposed to 
daily risk from tyrants and marauders, it was better that the 
precinct of a shrine should be regarded with an irrational 
awe, than that there should be no refuge inaccessible to 15 
cruelty and licentiousness. In times when statesmen were 
incapable of forming extensive political combinations, it was 
better that the Christian nations should be roused and 
united for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, than that 
they should, one by one, be overwhelmed by the Mahometan 20 
power. Whatever reproach may, at a later period, have 
been justly thrown on the indolence and luxury of religious 
orders, it was surely good that, in an age of ignorance and 
violence, there should be quiet cloisters and gardens, in 
which the arts of peace could be safely cultivated, in which 25 
gentle and contemplative natures could find an asylum, 
in which one brother could employ himself in transcribing 
the iEneid of Yirgil, and another in meditating the 
Analytics of Aristotle, in which he who had a genius for art 
might illuminate a martyrology or carve a crucifix, and in 30 
which he who had a turn for natural philosophy might 
make experiments on the properties of plants and minerals. 
Had not such retreats been scattered here and there, among 
the huts of a miserable peasantry, and the castles of a 
ferocious aristocracy, European society would have consisted 35 
merely of beasts of burden and beasts of prey. The 
Church has many times been compared by divines to the 
ark of which we read in the Book of Genesis ; but never 



8 macatjlay's history. 

was the resemblance more perfect than during that evil time 
when she alone rode, amidst darkness and tempest, on the 
deluge beneath which all the great works of ancient power 
and wisdom lay entombed, bearing within her that feeble 
5 germ from which a second and more glorious civilisation was 
to spring. 

Even the spiritual supremacy arrogated by the Pope was, 
in the dark ages, productive of far more good than evil. 
Its effect was to unite the nations of Western Europe in one 

10 great commonwealth. What the Olympian chariot course 
and the Pythian oracle were to all the Greek cities, from 
Trebizond to Marseilles, Rome and her Bishop were to 
all Christians of the Latin communion, from Calabria to the 
Hebrides. Thus grew up sentiments of enlarged benevo- 

15 lence. Races separated from each other by seas and 
mountains acknowledged a fraternal tie and a common code 
of public law. Even in war, the cruelty of the conqueror 
was not seldom mitigated by the recollection that he and 
his vanquished enemies were all members of one great 

20 federation. 

Into this federation the Anglo-Saxons were now admitted. 
A regular communication was opened between our shores 
and that part of Europe in which the traces of ancient 
power and policy were yet discernible. Many noble 

25 monuments which have since been destroyed or defaced 
still retained their pristine magnificence ; and travellers, to 
whom Livy and Sallust were unintelligible, might gain from 
the Roman aqueducts and temples some faint notion of 
Roman history. The dome of Agrippa, still glittering with 

30 bronze, the mausoleum of Adrian, not yet deprived of its 
columns and statues, the Flavian amphitheatre, not yet 
degraded into a quarry, told to the rude English pilgrims 
some part of the story of that great civilised world which 
had passed away. The islanders returned, with awe deeply 

35 impressed on their half opened minds, and told the won- 
dering inhabitants of the hovels of London and York that, 
near the grave of St. Peter, a mighty race, now extinct, 
had piled up buildings which would never be dissolved till 



DANISH INVASIONS. V 

the judgment day. Learning followed in the train of 
Christianity. The poetry and eloquence of the Augustan 
age was assiduously studied in Mercian and Northumbrian 
monasteries. The names of Bede, of Alcuin, and of 
John, surnamed Erigena, were justly celebrated throughout 5 
Europe. Such was the state of our country when, in the 
ninth century, began the last great migration of the northern 
barbarians. 

During many years Denmark and Scandinavia continued 
to pour forth innumerable pirates, distinguished by strength, 10 
by valour, by merciless ferocity, and by hatred of the 
Christian name. No country suffered, so much from these 
invaders as England. Her coast lay near to the ports 
whence they sailed ; nor was any shire so far distant from 
the sea as to be secure from attack. The same atrocities 15 
which had attended the victory of the Saxon over the 
Celt were now, after the lapse of ages, suffered by the 
Saxon at the hand of the Dane. Civilisation, just as it 
began to rise, was met by this blow, and sank down once 
more. Large colonies of adventurers from the Baltic estab- 20 
lished themselves on the eastern shores of our island, spread 
gradually westward, and, supported by constant reinforce- 
ments from beyond the sea, aspired to the dominion of the 
whole realm. The struggle between the two fierce Teutonic 
breeds lasted through six generations. Each was alternately 25 
paramount. Cruel massacres followed by cruel retribution, 
provinces wasted, convents plundered, and cities rased to 
the ground, make up the greater part of the history of those 
evil days. At length the North ceased to send forth a 
constant stream of fresh depredators ; and from that time 30 
the mutual aversion of the races began to subside. Inter- 
marriage became frequent. The Danes learned the religion 
of the Saxons.; and thus one cause of deadly animosity was 
removed. The Danish and Saxon tongues, both dialects of 
one widespread language, were blended together. But the 35 
distinction between the two nations was by no means effaced, 
when an event took place which prostrated both, in common 
slavery and degradation, at the feet of a third people. 



10 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. 

The Normans were then the foremost race of Christendom. 
Their valour and ferocity had made them conspicuous 
among the rovers whom Scandinavia had sent forth to 
ravage Western Europe. Their sails were long the 
5 terror of both coasts of the Channel. Their arms were 
repeatedly carried far into the heart of the Carlovingian 
empire, and were victorious under the walls of Maes- 
tricht and Paris. At length one of the feeble heirs of 
Charlemagne ceded to the strangers a fertile province, 

10 watered by a noble river, and contiguous to the sea which 
was their favourite element. In that province they founded 
a mighty state, which gradually extended its influence over 
the neighbouring principalities of Britanny and Maine. 
Without laying aside that dauntless valour which had been 

15 the terror of every land from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, the 
Normans rapidly acquired all, and more than all, the 
knowledge and refinement which they found in the country 
where they settled. Their courage secured their territory 
against foreign invasion. They established internal order, 

20 such as had long been unknown in the Frank empire. 
They embraced Christianity ; and with Christianity they 
learned a great part of what the clergy had to teach. They 
abandoned their native speech, and adopted the French 
tongue, in which the Latin was the predominant element. 

25 They speedily raised their new language to a dignity and 
importance which it had never before possessed. They 
found it a barbarous jargon ; they fixed it in writing ; and 
they employed it in legislation, in poetry, and in romance. 
They renounced that brutal intemperance to which all the 

SO other branches of the great German family were too much 
inclined. The polite luxury of the Norman presented a 
striking contrast to the coarse voracity and drunkenness of 
his Saxon and Danish neighbours. He loved to display his 
magnificence, not in huge piles of food and hogsheads of 

35 strong drink, but in large and stately edifices, rich armour, 
gallant horses, choice falcons, well ordered tournaments, 
banquets delicate rather than abundant, and wines remark- 
able rather for their exquisite flavour than for their 



THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 11 

intoxicating power. That chivalrous spirit, which has 
exercised so powerful an influence on the politics, morals, 
and manners of all the European nations, was found in the 
highest exaltation among the Norman nobles. Those nobles 
were distinguished by their graceful bearing and insinuating 5 
address. They were distinguished also by their skill in 
negotiation, and by a natural eloquence which they 
assiduously cultivated. It was the boast of one of their 
historians that the Norman gentlemen were orators from the 
cradle. But their chief fame was derived from their 10 
military exploits. Every country, from the Atlantic Ocean 
to the Dead Sea, witnessed the prodigies of their discipline 
and valour. One Norman knight, at the head of a handful 
of warriors, scattered the Celts of Connaught. Another 
founded the monarchy of the Two Sicilies, and saw the 15 
emperors both of the East and of the West fly before his 
arms. A third, the Ulysses of the first crusade, was in- 
vested by his fellow soldiers with the sovereignty of 
Antioch ; and a fourth, the Tancred whose name lives in 
the great poem of Tasso, was celebrated through Christendom 20 
as the bravest and most generous of the deliverers of the 
Holy Sepulchre. 

The vicinity of so remarkable a people early began to 
produce an effect on the public mind of England. Before 
the Conquest, English princes received their education in 25 
Normandy. English sees and English estates were bestowed 
on Normans. The French of Normandy was familiarly 
spoken in the palace of Westminster. The court of Kouen 
seems to have been to the court of Edward the Confessor 
what the court of Versailles long afterwards was to the 30 
court of Charles the Second. 

The battle of Hastings, and the events which followed 
it, not only placed a Duke of Normandy on the English 
throne, but gave up the whole population of England to 
the tyranny of the Norman race. The subjugation of a 35 
nation by a nation has seldom, even in Asia, been more 
complete. The country was portioned out among the 
captains of the invaders. Strong military institutions, 



12 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. 

closely connected with the institution of property, enabled 
the foreign conquerors to oppress the children of the soil. 
A cruel penal code, cruelly enforced, guarded the privi- 
leges, and even the sports, of the alien tyrants. Yet 
5 the subject race, though beaten down and trodden under 
foot, still made its sting felt. Some bold men, the 
favourite heroes of our oldest ballads, betook themselves to 
the woods, and there, in defiance of curfew laws and forest 
laws, waged a predatory war against their oppressors. 

10 Assassination was an event of daily occurrence. Many 
Normans suddenly disappeared, leaving no trace. The 
corpses of many were found bearing the marks of violence. 
Death by torture was denounced against the murderers, and 
strict search was made for them, but generally in vain ; for 

15 the whole nation was in a conspiracy to screen them. It 
was at length thought necessary to lay a heavy fine on every 
Hundred in which a person of French extraction should be 
found slain ; and this regulation was followed up by another 
regulation, providing that every person who was found 

20 slain should be supposed to be a Frenchman, unless he were 
proved to be a Saxon. 

During the century and a half which followed the 
Conquest, there is, to speak strictly, no English history. 
The French Kings of England rose, indeed, to an eminence 

25 which was the wonder and dread of all neighbouring 
nations. They conquered Ireland. They received the 
homage of Scotland. By their valour, by their policy, by 
their fortunate matrimonial alliances, they became far more 
powerful on the Continent than their liege lords the Kings 

30 of France. Asia, as well as Europe, was dazzled by the 
power and glory of our tyrants. Arabian chroniclers re 
corded with unwilling admiration the fall of Acre, the 
defence of Joppa, and the victorious march to Ascalon ; and 
Arabian mothers long awed their infants to silence with the 

35 name of the lionhearted Plantagenet. At one time it 
seemed that the line of Hugh Capet was about to end as 
the Merovingian and Carlovingian lines had ended, and that 
a single great monarchy would spread from the Orkneys to 



THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 13 

the Pyrenees. So strong an association is established in 
most minds between the greatness of a sovereign and the 
greatness of the nation which he rules, that almost every 
historian of England has expatiated with a sentiment of 
exultation on the power and splendour of her foreign 5 
masters, and has lamented the decay of that power and 
splendour as a calamity to our country. This is, in truth, 
as absurd as it would be in a Haytian negro of our time to 
dwell with national pride on the greatness of Lewis the 
Fourteenth, and to speak of Blenheim and Kamilies with 10 
patriotic regret and shame. The Conqueror and his de- 
scendants to the fourth generation were not Englishmen : 
most of them were born in France : they spent the greater 
part of their lives in France : their ordinary speech was 
French : almost every high office in their gift was filled by 15 
a Frenchman : every acquisition which they made on the 
Continent estranged them more and more from the popu- 
lation of our island. One of the ablest among them indeed 
attempted to win the hearts of his English subjects by 
espousing an English princess. But, by many of his barons, 20 
this marriage was regarded as a marriage between a white 
planter and a quadroon girl would now be regarded in 
Virginia. In history he is known by the honourable sur- 
name of Beauclerc ; but, in his own time, his own country- 
men called him by a Saxon nickname, in contemptuous 25 
allusion to his Saxon connection. 

Had the Plantagenets, as at one time seemed likely, suc- 
ceeded in uniting all France under their government, it is 
probable that England would never have had an independent 
existence. Her princes, her lords, her prelates, would have 30 
been men differing in race and language from the artisans 
and the tillers of the earth. The revenues of her great pro- 
prietors would have been spent in festivities and diversions 
on the banks of the Seine. The noble language of Milton 
and Burke would have remained a rustic dialect, without a 35 
literature, a fixed grammar, or a fixed orthography, and 
would have been contemptuously abandoned to the use of 
boors. No man of English extraction would have risen to 



14 macaulay's history. 






eminence, except by becoming in speech and habits a 
Frenchman. 

England owes her escape from such calamities to an 
event which her historians have generally represented as 
5 disastrous. Her interest was so directly opposed to the 
interest of her rulers that she had no hope but in their 
errors and misfortunes. The talents and even the virtues 
of her first six French Kings were a curse to her. The 
follies and vices of the seventh were her salvation. Had 

10 John inherited the great qualities of his father, of Henry 
Beauclerc, or of the Conqueror, nay, had he even pos- 
sessed the martial courage of Stephen or of Richard, 
and had the King of France at the same time been as 
incapable as all the other successors of Hugh Capet had 

15 been, the House of Plantagenet must have risen to un- 
rivalled ascendency in Europe. But, just at this con- 
juncture, France, for the first time since the death of 
Charlemagne, was governed by a prince of great firmness 
and ability. On the other hand, England, which, since 

20 the battle of Hastings, had been ruled generally by wise 
statesmen, always by brave soldiers, fell under the dominion 
of a trifler and a coward. From that moment her prospects 
brightened. John was driven from Normandy. The 
Norman nobles were compelled to make their election 

25 between the island and the continent. Shut up by the sea 
with the people whom they had hitherto oppressed and 
despised, they gradually came to regard England as their 
country, and the English as their countrymen. The two 
races, so long hostile, soon found that they had common in- 

30 terests and common enemies. Both were alike aggrieved by 
the tyranny of a bad king. Both were alike indignant at 
the favour shown by the court to the natives of Poitou 
and Aquitaine. The greatgrandsons of those who had 
fought under William and the greatgrandsons of those 

35 who had fought under Harold began to draw near to each 
other in friendship; and the first pledge of their re- 
conciliation was the Great Charter, won by their united 
exertions, and framed for their common benefit. 



AMALGAMATION OF KACES. 15 

Here commences the history of the English nation. The 
history of the preceding events is the history of wrongs 
inflicted and sustained by various tribes, which indeed all 
dwelt on English ground, but which regarded each other 
with aversion such as has scarcely ever existed between 5 
communities separated by physical barriers. For even 
the mutual animosity of countries at war with each other 
is languid when compared with the animosity of nations 
which, morally separated, are yet locally intermingled. In 
no country has the enmity of race been carried farther than 10 
in England. In no country has that enmity been more com- 
pletely effaced. The stages of the process by which the 
hostile elements were melted down into one homogeneous 
mass are not accurately known to us. But it is certain that, ■ 
when John became King, the distinction between Saxons 15 
and Normans was strongly marked, and that before the end 
of the reign of his grandson it had almost disappeared. In 
the time of Richard the First, the ordinary imprecation of 
a Norman gentleman was, "May I become an English- 
man ! " His ordinary form of indignant denial was, " Do 20 
you take me for an Englishman?" The descendant of such 
a gentleman a hundred years later was proud of the English 
name. 

The sources of the noblest rivers which spread fertility 
over continents, and bear richly laden fleets to the sea, are 25 
to be sought in wild and barren mountain tracts, incorrectly 
laid down in maps, and rarely explored by travellers. To 
such a tract the history of our country during the thirteenth 
century may not unaptly be compared. Sterile and obscure 
as is that portion of our annals, it is there that we must 30 
seek for the origin of our freedom, our prosperity, and our 
glory. Then it was that the great English people was 
formed, that the national character began to exhibit those 
peculiarities which it has ever since retained, and that our 
fathers became emphatically islanders, islanders not merely 35 
in geographical position, but in their politics, their feelings, 
and their manners. Then first appeared with distinctness 
that constitution which has ever since, through all changes, 



16 macaulay's history. 

preserved its identity ; that constitution of which all the 
other free constitutions in the world are copies, and which, 
in spite of some defects, deserves to be regarded as the best 
under which any great society has ever yet existed during 

5 many ages. Then it was that the House of Commons, the 
archetype of all the representative assemblies which now 
meet, either in the old or in the new world, held its first 
sittings. Then it was that the common law rose to the 
dignity of a science, and rapidly became a not unworthy 

10 rival of the imperial jurisprudence. Then it was that the 
courage of those sailors who manned the rude barks of the 
Cinque Ports first made the flag of England terrible on the 
seas. Then it was that the most ancient colleges which still 
exist at both the great national seats of learning were 

15 founded. Then was formed that language, less musical 
indeed than the languages of the south, but in force, in 
richness, in aptitude for all the highest purposes of the poet, 
the philosopher, and the orator, inferior to the tongue of 
Greece alone. Then too appeared the first faint dawn of 

20 that noble literature, the most splendid and the most durable 
of the many glories of England. 

Early in the fourteenth century the amalgamation of the 
races was all but complete ; and it was soon made manifest, 
by signs not to be mistaken, that a people inferior to none 

25 existing in the world had been formed by the mixture of 
three branches of the great Teutonic family with each other, 
and with the aboriginal Britons. There was, indeed, scarcely 
anything in common between the England to which John 
had been chased by Philip Augustus, and the England from 

30 which the armies of Edward the third went forth to con- 
quer France. 

A period of more than a hundred years followed, during 
which the chief object of the English was to establish, 
by force of arms, a great empire on the Continent. The 

35 claim of Edward to the inheritance occupied by the 
House of Valois was a claim in which it might seem 
that his subjects were little interested. But the passion 
for conquest spread fast from the prince to the people. 



ENGLISH CONQUESTS ON THE CONTINENT. 17 

The war differed widely from the wars which the Plan- 
tagenets of the twelfth century had waged against the 
descendants of Hugh Capet. For the success of Henry 
the Second, or of Richard the First, would have made 
England a province of France. The effect of the successes 5 
of Edward the Third and Henry the Fifth was to make 
France, for a time, a province of England. The disdain 
with which, in the twelfth century, the conquerors from the 
Continent had regarded the islanders, was now retorted by 
the islanders on the people of the Continent. Every 10 
yeoman from Kent to Northumberland valued himself as 
one of a race born for victory and dominion, and looked 
down with scorn on the nation before which his ancestors 
had trembled. Even those knights of Gascony and Guienne 
who had fought gallantly under the Black Prince were 15 
regarded by the English as men of an inferior breed, and 
were contemptuously excluded from honourable and lucra- 
tive commands. In no long time our ancestors altogether 
lost sight of the original ground of quarrel. They began 
to consider the crown of France as a mere appendage to the 20 
crown of England ; and when, in violation of the ordinary 
law of succession, they transferred the crown of England to 
the House of Lancaster, they seem to have thought that 
the right of Richard the Second to the crown of France 
passed, as of course, to that house. The zeal and vigour 25 
which they displayed present a remarkable contrast to the 
torpor of the French, who were far more deeply interested 
in the event of the struggle. The most splendid victories 
recorded in the history of the middle ages were gained at 
this time, against great odds, by the English armies. 30 
Victories indeed they were of which a nation may justly be 
proud ; for they are to be attributed to the moral superiority 
of the victors, a superiority which was most striking in the 
lowest ranks. The knights of England found worthy rivals 
in the knights of France. Chandos encountered an equal 35 
foe in Du Guesclin. But France had no infantry that 
dared to face the English bows and bills. A French king 
was brought prisoner to London. An English king was 



18 MACAULAY'S HISTORY. 

crowned at Paris. The banner of Saint George was carried 
far beyond the Pyrenees and the Alps. On the south of 
the Ebro the English won a great battle, which for a time 
decided the fate of Leon and Castile ; and the English 
5 Companies obtained a terrible preeminence among the bands 
of warriors who let out their weapons for hire to the princes 
and commonwealths of Italy. 

Nor were the arts of peace neglected by our fathers during 
that stirring period. While France was wasted by war, till 

10 she at length found in her own desolation a miserable 
defence against invaders, the English gathered in their 
harvests, adorned their cities, pleaded, traded, and studied 
in security. Many of our noblest architectural monuments 
belong to that age. Then rose the fair chapels of New 

15 College and of Saint George, the nave of Winchester and the 
choir of York, the spire of Salisbury and the majestic towers 
of Lincoln. A copious and forcible language, formed by an 
infusion of French into German, was now the common 
property of the aristocracy and of the people. Nor was it 

20 long before genius began to apply that admirable machine to 
worthy purposes. While English warriors, leaving behind 
them the devastated provinces of France, entered Valladolid 
in triumph, and spread terror to the gates of Florence, 
English poets depicted in vivid tints all the wide variety of 

25 human manners and fortunes, and English thinkers aspired 
to know, or dared to doubt, where bigots had been content 
to wonder and to believe. The same age which produced 
the Black Prince and Derby, Chandos and Hawkwood, 
produced also Geoffrey Chaucer and John Wycliffe. 

30 In so splendid and imperial a manner did the English 
people, properly so called, first take place among the nations 
of the world. Yet while we contemplate with pleasure the 
high and commanding qualities which our forefathers 
displayed, we cannot but admit that the end which they 

35 pursued was an end condemned both by humanity and by 
enlightened policy, and that the reverses which compelled 
them, after a long and bloody struggle, to relinquish the hope 
of establishing a great continental empire, were really 



WARS OF THE ROSES. 19 

blessings in the guise of disasters. The spirit of the French 
was at last aroused : they began to oppose a vigorous 
national resistance to the foreign conquerors ; and from that 
time the skill of the English captains and the courage of the 
English soldiers were, happily for mankind, exerted in vain. 5 
After many desperate struggles, and with many bitter regrets, 
our ancestors gave up the contest. Since that age no British 
government has ever seriously and steadily pursued the 
design of making great conquests on the Continent. The 
people, indeed, continued to cherish with pride the recollec- 10 
tion of Cressy, of Poitiers, and of Agincourt. Even after 
the lapse of many years it was easy to fire their blood and to 
draw forth their subsidies by promising them an expedition 
for the conquest of France. But happily the energies of our 
country have been directed to better objects ; and she now 15 
occupies in the history of mankind a place far more glorious 
than if she had, as at one time seemed not improbable, 
acquired by the sword an ascendency similar to that which 
formerly belonged to the Roman republic. 

Cooped up once more within the limits of the island, 20 
the warlike people employed in civil strife those arms 
which had been the terror of Europe. The means of 
profuse expenditure had long been drawn by the English 
barons from the oppressed provinces of France. That 
source of supply was gone : but the ostentatious and 25 
luxurious habits which prosperity had engendered still 
remained ; and the great lords, unable to gratify their tastes 
by plundering the French, were eager to plunder each other. 
The realm to which they were now confined would not, in 
the phrase of Comines, the most judicious observer of that 30 
time, suffice for them all. Two aristocratical factions, 
headed by two branches of the royal family, engaged in 
a long and fierce struggle for supremacy. As the animosity 
of those factions did not really arise from the dispute about 
the succession, it lasted long after all ground of dispute 35 
about the succession was removed. The party of the Red 
Rose survived the last prince who claimed the crown in 
right of Henry the Fourth. The party of the White Rose 



20 macaulay's history. 

survived the marriage of Richmond and Elizabeth. Left 
without chiefs who had any decent show of right, the 
adherents of Lancaster rallied round a line of bastards, and 
the adherents of York set up a succession of impostors. 
5 When, at length, many aspiring nobles had perished on the 
field of battle or by the hands of the executioner, when 
many illustrious houses had disappeared for ever from 
history, when those great families which remained had been 
exhausted and sobered by calamities, it was universally 

10 acknowledged that the claims of all the contending Plan- 
tagenets were united in the house of Tudor. 

Meanwhile a change was proceeding infinitely more 
momentous than the acquisition or loss of any province, 
than the rise or fall of any dynasty. Slavery and the 

15 evils by which slavery is everywhere accompanied were fast 
disappearing. 

It is remarkable that the two greatest and most salutary 
social revolutions which have taken place in England, that 
revolution which, in the thirteenth century, put an end 

20 to the tyranny of nation over nation, and that revolution 
which, a few generations later, put an end to the property of 
man in man, were silently and imperceptibly effected. They 
struck contemporary observers with no surprise, and have 
received from historians a very scanty measure of attention. 

25 They were brought about neither by legislative regulation 
nor by physical force. Moral causes noiselessly effaced first 
the distinction between Norman and Saxon, and then the 
distinction between master and slave. None can venture to 
fix the precise moment at which either distinction ceased. 

30 Some faint traces of the old Norman feeling might perhaps 
have been found late in the fourteenth century. Some 
faint traces of the institution of villenage were detected 
by the curious so late as the days of the Stuarts ; nor 
has that institution ever, to this hour, been abolished by 

CO statute. 

It would be most unjust not to acknowledge that the 
chief agent in these two great deliverances was religion; 
and it may perhaps be doubted whether a purer religion 



EXTINCTION OF VILLENAGE. 21 

might not have been found a less efficient agent. The 
benevolent spirit of the Christian morality is undoubtedly 
adverse to distinctions of caste. But to the Church of 
Rome such distinctions are peculiarly odious ; for they are 
incompatible with other distinctions which are essential to 5 
her system. She ascribes to every priest a mysterious 
dignity which entitles him to the reverence of every layman ; 
and she does not consider any man as disqualified, by 
reason of his nation or of his family, for the priesthood. 
Her doctrines respecting the sacerdotal character, however 10 
erroneous they may be, have repeatedly mitigated some of 
the worst evils which can afflict society. That superstition 
cannot be regarded as unmixeclly noxious which, in regions 
cursed by the tyranny of race over race, creates an aris- 
tocracy altogether independent of race, inverts the relation 15 
between the oppressor and the oppressed, and compels 
the hereditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal 
of the hereditary bondman. To this day, in some countries 
where negro slavery exists, Popery appears in advantageous 
contrast to other forms of Christianity. It is notorious 20 
that the antipathy between the European and African races 
is by no means so strong at Eio Janeiro as at Washington. 
In our own country this peculiarity of the Roman Catholic 
system produced, during the middle ages, many salutary 
effects. It is true that, shortly after the battle of Hastings, 25 
Saxon prelates and abbots were violently deposed, and that 
ecclesiastical adventurers from the Continent were intruded 
by hundreds into lucrative benefices. Yet even then pious 
divines of Norman blood raised their voices against such 
a violation of the constitution of the Church, refused to 30 
accept mitres from the hands of William, and charged 
him, on the peril of his soul, not to forget that the van- 
quished islanders were his fellow Christians. The first 
protector whom the English found among the dominant 
caste was Archbishop Anselm. At a time when the 35 
English name was a reproach, and when all the civil 
and military dignities of the kingdom were supposed to 
belong exclusively to the countrymen of the Conqueror, the 



22 macaulay's history. 

despised race learned, with transports of delight, that one of 
themselves, Nicholas Breakspear, had been elevated to the 
papal throne, and had held out his foot to be kissed by 
ambassadors sprung from the noblest houses of Normandy. 
5 It was a national as well as a religious feeling that drew great 
multitudes to the shrine of Becket, whom they regarded 
as the enemy of their enemies. Whether he was a Norman 
or a Saxon may be doubted : but there is no doubt that 
he perished by Norman hands, and that the Saxons cherished 

10 his memory with peculiar tenderness and veneration, and, in 
their popular poetry, represented him as one of their own 
race. A successor of Becket was foremost among the 
refractory magnates who obtained that charter which secured 
the privileges both of the Norman barons and of the Saxon 

15 yeomanry. How great a part the Roman Catholic ecclesi- 
astics subsequently had in the abolition of villenage we learn 
from the unexceptionable testimony of Sir Thomas Smith, 
one of the ablest Protestant councillors of Elizabeth. When 
the dying slaveholder asked for the last sacraments, his 

20 spiritual attendants regularly adjured him, as he loved 
his soul, to emancipate his brethren for whom Christ had 
died. So successfully had the Church used her formidable 
machinery that, before the Reformation came, she had 
enfranchised almost all the bondmen in the kingdom except 

25 her own, who, to do her justice, seem to have been very 
tenderly treated. 

There can be no doubt that, when these two great 
revolutions had been effected, our forefathers were by far 
the best governed people in Europe. During three hundred 

80 years the social system had been in a constant course 
of improvement. Under the first Plantagenets there had 
been barons able to bid defiance to the sovereign, and 
peasants degraded to the level of the swine and oxen which 
they tended. The exorbitant power of the baron had been 

35 gradually reduced. The condition of the peasant had been 
gradually elevated. Between the aristocracy and the 
working people had sprung up a middle class, agricultural 
and commercial. There was still, it may be, more inequality 



EARLY ENGLISH POLITY OFTEN MISREPRESENTED. 23 

than is favourable to the happiness and virtue of our 
species : but no man was altogether above the restraints of 
law ; and no man was altogether below its protection. 

That the political institutions of England were, at this 
early period, regarded by the English with pride and 5 
affection, and by the most enlightened men of neighbour- 
ing nations with admiration and envy, is proved by the 
clearest evidence. But touching the nature of those insti- 
tutions there has been much dishonest and acrimonious 
controversy. 10 

The historical literature of England has indeed suffered 
grievously from a circumstance which has not a little con- 
tributed to her prosperity. The change, great as it is, which 
her polity has undergone during the last six centuries, has 
been the effect of gradual development, not of demolition and 15 
reconstruction. The present constitution of our country is, to 
the constitution under which she flourished five hundred years 
ago, what the tree is to the sapling, what the man is to the 
boy. The alteration has been great. Yet there never was a 
moment at which the chief part of what existed was not old. 20 
A polity thus formed must abound in anomalies. But for 
the evils arising from mere anomalies we have ample 
compensation. Other societies possess written constitutions 
more symmetrical. But no other society has yet succeeded 
in uniting revolution with prescription, progress with 25 
stability, the energy of youth with the majesty of immemorial 
antiquity. 

This great blessing, however, has its drawbacks : and one 
of those drawbacks is that every source of information as to 
our early history has been poisoned by party spirit. As 30 
there is no country where statesmen have been so much 
under the influence of the past, so there is no country where 
historians have been so much under the influence of the 
present. Between these two things, indeed, there is a 
natural connection. Where history is regarded merely as a 35 
picture of life and manners, or as a collection of experiments 
from which general maxims of civil wisdom may be drawn, 
a writer lies under no very pressing temptation to misrepre- 



24 macaulay's history. 

sent transactions of ancient date. But where history ig 
regarded as a repository of titledeeds, on which the rights of 
governments and nations depend, the motive to falsification 
becomes almost irresistible. A Frenchman is not now impelled 
5 by any strong interest either to exaggerate or to underrate the 
power of the kings of the house of Yalois. The privileges 
of the States General, of the States of Britanny, of the 
States of Burgundy, are to him matters of as little practical 
importance as the constitution of the Jewish Sanhedrim or 

10 of the Amphictyonic Council. The gulph of a great 
revolution completely separates the new from the old system. 
No such chasm divides the existence of the English nation 
into two distinct parts. Our laws and customs have never 
been lost in general and irreparable ruin. With us the 

15 precedents of the middle ages are still valid precedents, and 
are still cited, on the gravest occasions, by the most eminent 
statesmen. For example, when King George the Third was 
attacked by the malady which made him incapable of 
performing his regal functions, and when the most distin- 

20 guished lawyers and politicians differed widely as to the 
course which ought, in such circumstances, to be pursued, 
the Houses of Parliament would not proceed to discuss any 
plan of regency till all the precedents which were to be 
found in our annals, from the earliest times, had been 

25 collected and arranged. Committees were appointed to 
examine the ancient records of the realm. The first case 
reported was that of the year 1217 : much importance was 
attached to the cases of 1326, of 1377, and of 1422 : but 
the case which was justly considered as most in point was 

30 that of 1455. Thus in our country the dearest interests 
of parties have frequently been staked on the results of the 
researches of antiquaries. The inevitable consequence was 
that our antiquaries conducted their researches in the spirit 
of partisans. 

85 It is therefore not surprising that those who have written 
concerning the limits of prerogative and liberty in the 
old polity of England should generally have shown the 
temper, not of judges, but of angry and uncandid advocates. 



EARLY ENGLISH POLITY OFTEN MISREPRESENTED. 25 

For they were discussing, not a speculative matter, but a 
matter which had a direct and practical connection with the 
most momentous and exciting disputes of their own day. 
From the commencement of the long contest between the 
Parliament and the Stuarts down to the time when the 5 
pretensions of the Stuarts ceased to be formidable, few 
questions were practically more important than the question 
whether the administration of that family had or had not 
been in accordance with the ancient constitution of the 
kingdom. This question could be decided only by reference 10 
to the records of preceding reigns. Bracton and Fleta, the 
Mirror of Justice and the Rolls of Parliament, were ran- 
sacked to find pretexts for the excesses of the Star Chamber 
on one side, and of the High Court of Justice on the other. 
During a long course of years every Whig historian was 15 
anxious to prove that the old English government was 
all but republican, every Tory historian to prove that it was 
all but despotic. 

With such feelings, both parties looked into the chronicles 
of the middle ages. Both readily found what they sought ; 20 
and both obstinately refused to see anything but what they 
sought. The champions of the Stuarts could easily point 
out instances of oppression exercised on the subject. The 
defenders of the Roundheads could as easily produce 
instances of determined and successful resistance offered 25 
to the Crown. The Tories quoted, from ancient writings, 
expressions almost as servile as were heard from the pulpit 
of Mainwaring. The Whigs discovered expressions as bold 
and severe as any that resounded from the judgment seat of 
Bradshaw. One set of writers adduced numerous instances 30 
in which Kings had extorted money without the authority 
of Parliament. Another set cited cases in which the 
Parliament had assumed to itself the power of inflicting 
punishment oh Kings. Those who saw only one half of the 
evidence would have concluded that the Plantagenets were 35 
as absolute as the Sultans of Turkey : those who saw only 
the other half would have concluded that the Plantagenets 
had as little real power as the Doges of Venice ; and both 



26 macaulay's history. 

conclusions would have been equally remote from the 
truth. 

The old English government was one of a class of 
limited monarchies which sprang up in Western Europe 
5 during the middle ages, and which, notwithstanding many 
diversities, bore to one another a strong family likeness. 
That there should have been such a likeness is not strange. 
The countries in which those monarchies arose had been 
provinces of the same great civilised empire, and had 

10 been overrun and conquered, about the same time, by 
tribes of the same rude and warlike nation. They were 
members of the same great coalition against Islam. They 
were in communion with the same superb and ambitious 
Church. Their polity naturally took the same form. 

15 They had institutions derived partly from imperial Rome, 
partly from papal Rome, partly from the old Germany. 
All had kings; and in all the kingly office became by 
degrees strictly hereditary. All had nobles bearing titles 
which had originally indicated military rank. The dignity 

20 of knighthood, the rules of heraldry, were common to 
all. All had richly endowed ecclesiastical establishments, 
municipal corporations enjoying large franchises, and senates 
whose consent was necessary to the validity of some public 
acts. 

25 Of these kindred constitutions the English was, from 
an early period, justly reputed the best. The preroga- 
tives of the sovereign were undoubtedly extensive. The 
spirit of religion and the spirit of chivalry concurred to 
exalt his dignity. The sacred oil had been poured on 

30 his head. It was no disparagement to the bravest and 
noblest knights to kneel at his feet. His person was 
inviolable, lie alone was entitled to convoke the Estates 
of the realm : he could at his pleasure dismiss them ; 
and his assent was necessary to all their legislative acts. 

35 He was the chief of the executive administration, the 
sole organ of communication with foreign powers, the 
captain of the military and naval forces of the state, the 
fountain of justice, of mercy, and of honour. He had large 



PREROGATIVES OF THE EARLY ENGLISH KINGS. 27 

powers for the regulation of trade. It was by him that 
money was coined, that weights and measures were fixed, 
that marts and havens were appointed. His ecclesiastical 
patronage was immense. His hereditary revenues, economi- 
cally administered, sufficed to meet the ordinary charges 5 
of government. His own domains were of vast extent. He 
was also feudal lord paramount of the whole soil of his 
kingdom, and, in that capacity, possessed many lucrative and 
many formidable rights, which enabled him to annoy and 
depress those who thwarted him, and to enrich and 10 
aggrandise, without any cost to himself, those who enjoyed 
his favour. 

But his power, though ample, was limited by three 
great constitutional principles, so ancient that none can 
say when they began to exist, so potent that their 15 
natural development, continued through many generations, 
has produced the order of things under which we now 
live. 

First, the King could not legislate without the consent of 
his Parliament. Secondly, he could impose no tax without 20 
the consent of his Parliament. Thirdly, he was bound to 
conduct the executive administration according to the laws 
of the land, and, if he broke those laws, his advisers and 
his agents were responsible. 

No candid Tory will deny that these principles had, five 25 
hundred years ago, acquired the authority of fundamental 
rules. On the other hand, no candid Whig will affirm that 
they were, till a later period, cleared from all ambiguity, or 
followed out to all their consequences. A constitution of 
the middle ages was not, like a constitution of the eighteenth 30 
or nineteenth century, created entire by a single act, and 
fully set forth in a single document. It is only in a refined 
and speculative age that a polity is constructed on system. 
In rude societies the progress of government resembles the 
progress of language and of versification. Eude societies 35 
have language, and often copious and energetic language : 
but they have no scientific grammar, no definitions of nouns 
and verbs, no names for declensions, moods, tenses, and 



28 MACATJLAY S HISTORY. 

voices. Rude societies have versification, and often versifica- 
tion of great power and sweetness : but they have no 
metrical canons : and the minstrel whose numbers, regulated 
solely by his ear, are the delight of his audience, would 
5 himself be unable to say of how many dactyls and trochees 
each of his lines consists. As eloquence exists before 
syntax, and song before prosody, so government may exist 
in a high degree of excellence long before the limits of 
legislative, executive, and judicial power have been traced 

10 with precision. 

It was thus in our country. The line which bounded the 
royal prerogative, though in general sufficiently clear, had 
not everywhere been drawn with accuracy and distinctness. 
There was, therefore, near the border some debatable 

15 ground on which incursions and reprisals continued to take 
place, till after ages of strife, plain and durable landmarks 
were at length set up. It may be instructive to note in 
what way, and to what extent, our ancient sovereigns were 
in the habit of violating the three great principles by which 

20 the liberties of the nation were protected. 

Ko English king has ever laid claim to the general legis- 
lative power. The most violent and imperious Plantagenet 
never fancied himself competent to enact, without the 
consent of his great council, that a jury should consist of 

25 ten persons instead of twelve, that a widow's dower should 
be a fourth part instead of a third, that perjury should be a 
felony, or that the custom of gavelkind should be introduced 
into Yorkshire. But the king had the power of pardoning 
offenders ; and there is one point at which the power of 

30 pardoning and the power of legislating seem to fade into each 
other, and may easily, at least in a simple age, be confounded. 
A penal statute is virtually annulled if the penalties 
which it imposes are regularly remitted as often as they are 
incurred. The sovereign was undoubtedly competent to 

35 remit penalties without limit. He was therefore competent 
to annul virtually a penal statute. It might seem that there 
could be no serious objection to his doing formally what he 
might do virtually. Thus, with the help of subtle and 



LIMITATIONS NOT ALWAYS STRICTLY OBSERVED. 29 

courtly lawyers, grew up, on the doubtful frontier which 
separates executive from legislative functions, that great 
anomaly known as the dispensing power. 

That the king could not impose taxes without the consent 
of Parliament is admitted to have been, from time 5 
immemorial, a fundamental law of England. It was among 
the articles which John was compelled by the Barons to 
sign. Edward the First ventured to break through the 
rule ; but, able, powerful, and popular as he was, he 
encountered an opposition to which he found it expedient to 10 
yield. He covenanted accordingly in express terms, for 
himself and his heirs, that they would never again levy any 
aid without the assent and goodwill of the Estates of the 
realm. His powerful and victorious grandson attempted to 
violate this solemn compact : but the attempt was strenuously 15 
withstood. At length the Plantagenets gave up the point 
in despair : but, though they ceased to infringe the law 
openly, they occasionally contrived, by evading it, to pro- 
cure an extraordinary supply for a temporary purpose. 
They were interdicted from taxing ; but they claimed the 20 
right of begging and borrowing. They therefore sometimes 
begged in a tone not easily to be distinguished from that of 
command, and sometimes borrowed with small thought of 
repaying. But the fact that they thought it necessary to 
disguise their exactions under the names of benevolences 25 
and loans sufficiently proves that the authority of the great 
constitutional rule was universally recognised. 

The principle that the King of England was bound to 
conduct the administration according to law, and that, if he 
did anything against law, his advisers and agents were 30 
answerable, was established at a very early period, as the 
severe judgments pronounced and executed on many royal 
favourites sufficiently prove. It is, however, certain that 
the rights of individuals were often violated by the Plan- 
tagenets, and that the injured parties were often unable to 35 
obtain redress. According to law no Englishman could be 
arrested or detained in confinement merely by the mandate 
of the sovereign. In fact, persons obnoxious to the govern- 



30 macaulay's history. 

ment were frequently imprisoned without any other 
authority than a royal order. According to law, torture, the 
disgrace of the Roman jurisprudence, could not, in any 
circumstances, be inflicted on an English subject. Never- 
5 theless, during the troubles of the fifteenth century, a rack 
was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used 
under the plea of political necessity. But it would be a 
great error to infer from such irregularities that the English 
monarchs were, either in theory or in practice, absolute. 

10 We live in a highly civilised society, through which 
intelligence is so rapidly diffused by means of the press and 
of the post-office that any gross act of oppression committed 
in any part of our island is, in a few hours, discussed 
by millions. If the sovereign wefe now to immure a 

15 subject in defiance of the writ of Habeas Corpus, or to put 
a conspirator to the torture, the whole nation would be 
instantly electrified by the news. In the middle ages the 
state of society was widely different. Rarely and with 
great difficulty did the wrongs of individuals come to the 

20 knowledge of the public. A man might be illegally con- 
fined during many months in the castle of Carlisle or 
Norwich ; and no whisper of the transaction might reach 
London. It is highly probable that the rack had been 
many years in use before the great majority of the nation 

25 had the least suspicion that it was ever employed. Nor 
were our ancestors by any means so much alive as we are to 
the importance of maintaining great general rules. We 
have been taught by long experience that we cannot without 
danger suffer any breach of the constitution to pass un- 

30 noticed. It is therefore now universally held that a govern- 
ment which unnecessarily exceeds its powers ought to be 
visited with severe parliamentary censure, and that a 
government which, under the pressure of a great exigency, 
and with pure intentions, has exceeded its powers, ought 

35 without delay to apply to Parliament for an act of in- 
demnity. But such were not the feelings of the English- 
men of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They were 
little disposed to contend for a principle merely as a 



RESISTANCE AN ORDINARY CHECK ON TYRANNY. 31 

principle, or to cry out against an irregularity which was not 
also felt to be a grievance. As long as the general spirit of 
the administration was mild and popular, they were willing 
to allow some latitude to their sovereign. If, for ends 
generally acknowledged to be good, he exerted a vigour 5 
beyond the law, they not only forgave, but applauded him, 
and, while they enjoyed security and prosperity under his 
rule, were but too ready to believe that whoever had incurred 
his displeasure had deserved it. But to this indulgence there 
was a limit; nor was that king wise who presumed far on 10 
the forbearance of the English people. They might some- 
times allow him to overstep the constitutional line : but 
they also claimed the privilege of overstepping that line 
themselves, whenever his encroachments were so serious as 
to excite alarm. If, not content with occasionally oppressing 15 
individuals, he dared to oppress great masses, his subjects 
promptly appealed to the laws, and that appeal failing, 
appealed as promptly to the God of battles. 

Our forefathers might indeed safely tolerate a king in 
a few excesses ; for they had in reserve a check which 20 
soon brought the fiercest and proudest king to reason, the 
check of physical force. It is difficult for an Englishman 
of the nineteenth century to image to himself the facility 
and rapidity with which, four hundred years ago, this 
check was applied. The people have unlearned the use 25 
of arms. The art of war has been carried to a perfection 
unknown to former ages ; and the knowledge of that 
art is confined to a particular class. A hundred thou- 
sand soldiers, well disciplined and commanded, will keep 
down ten millions of ploughmen and artizans. A few 30 
regiments of household troops are sufficient to overawe 
all the discontented spirits of a large capital. In the 
meantime the effect of the constant progress of wealth 
has been to make insurrection far more terrible to 
thinking men than maladministration. Immense sums 35 
have been expended on works which, if a rebellion broke 
out, might perish in a few hours. The mass of mov- 
able wealth collected in the shops and warehouses of 



32 macatjlay's history. 

London alone exceeds five hundred-fold that which the 
whole island contained in the days of the Plantagenets ; and 
if the government were subverted by physical force, all this 
movable wealth would be exposed to imminent risk of 
5 spoliation and destruction. Still greater would be the risk 
to public credit, on which thousands of families, directly 
depend for subsistence, and with which the credit of the 
whole commercial world is inseparably connected. It is no 
exaggeration to say that a civil war of a week on English 

10 ground would now produce disasters which would be felt 
from the Hoangho to the Missouri, and of which the traces 
would be discernible at the distance of a century. In such 
a state of society resistance must be regarded as a cure more 
desperate than almost any malady which can afflict the state. 

15 In the middle ages, on the contrary, resistance was an 
ordinary remedy for political distempers, a remedy which 
was always at hand, and which, though doubtless sharp at 
the moment, produced no deep or lasting ill effects. If a 
popular chief raised his standard in a popular cause, an 

20 irregular army could be assembled in a day. Regular army 
there was none. Every man had a slight tincture of 
soldier-ship, and scarcely any man more than a slight 
tincture. The national wealth consisted chiefly in flocks 
and herds, in the harvest of the year, and in the simple 

25 buildings inhabited by the people. All the furniture, the 
stock of shops, the machinery which could be found in the 
realm was of less value than the property which some single 
parishes now contain. Manufactures were rude ; credit was 
almost unknown. Society, therefore, recovered from the 

30 shock as soon as the actual conflict was over. The calamities 
of civil war were confined to the slaughter on the field of 
battle, and to a few subsequent executions and confiscations. 
In a week the peasant was driving his team and the esquire 
flying his hawks over the field of Towton or of Bos worth, 

35 as if no extraordinary event had interrrupted the regular 
course of human life. 

More than a hundred and sixty years have now elapsed 
since the English people have by force subverted a govern- 



merit. During the hundred and sixty years which preceded 
the union of the Roses, nine kings reigned in England. 
Six of these nine kings were deposed. Five lost their lives 
as well as their crowns. It is evident, therefore, that any 
comparison between our ancient and our modern polity must 5 
lead to most erroneous conclusions, unless large allowance be 
made for the effect of that restraint which resistance and the 
fear of resistance constantly imposed on the Plantagenets. 
As our ancestors had against tyranny a most important 
security which we want, they might safely dispense with 10 
some securities to which we justly attach the highest 
importance. As we cannot, without the risk of evils from 
which, the imagination recoils, employ physical force as a 
check on misgovernment, it is evidently our wisdom to keep 
all the constitutional checks on misgovernment in the 15 
highest state of efficiency, to watch with jealousy the first 
beginnings of encroachment, and never to suffer irregularities, 
even when harmless in themselves, to pass unchallenged, 
lest they acquire the force of precedents. Four hundred 
years ago such minute vigilance might well seem unnecessary. 20 
A nation of hardy archers and spearmen might, with small 
risk to its liberties, connive at some illegal acts on the part 
of a prince whose general administration was good, and 
whose throne was not defended by a single company of 
regular soldiers. 25 

Under this system, rude as it may appear when compared 
with those elaborate constitutions of which the last seventy 
years have been fruitful, the English long enjoyed a large 
measure of freedom and happiness. Though, during the 
feeble reign of Henry the Sixth, the state was torn, first by 30 
factions, and at length by civil war; though Edward the 
Fourth was a prince of dissolute and imperious character; 
though Richard the Third has generally been represented as 
a monster of depravity ; though the exactions of Henry the 
Seventh caused great repining ; it is certain that our 35 
ancestors, under those kings, were far better governed than 
the Belgians under Philip, surnamed the Good, or the French 
under that Lewis who was styled the Father of his people. 

D 



34 macaulay's history. 

Even while the Wars of the Eoses were actually raging, our 
country appears to have been in a happier condition than 
the neighbouring realm during years of profound peace. 
Comines was one of the most enlightened statesmen of his 
5 time. He had seen all the richest and most highly civilised 
parts of the Continent. He had lived in the opulent towns 
of Flanders, the Manchesters and Liverpools of the fifteenth 
century. He had visited Florence, recently adorned by the 
magnificence of Lorenzo, and Venice, not yet humbled by 

10 the confederates of Cambray. This eminent man deliberately 
pronounced England to be the best governed country of 
which he had any knowledge. Her constitution he em- 
phatically designated as a just and holy thing, which, while 
it protected the people, really strengthened the hands of 

15 a prince who respected it. In no other country, he said, 
were men so effectually secured from wrong. The calamities 
produced by our intestine wars seemed to him to be confined 
to the nobles and the fighting men, and to leave no traces 
such as he had been accustomed to see elsewhere, no ruined 

20 dwellings, no depopulated cities. 

It was not only by the efficiency of the restraints 
imposed on the royal prerogative that England was ad- 
vantageously distinguished from most of the neighbouring 
countries. A peculiarity equally important, though less 

25 noticed, was the relation in which the nobility stood here 
to the commonalty. There was a strong hereditary aris- 
tocracy : but it was of all aristocracies the least insolent 
and exclusive. It had none of the invidious character 
of a caste. It was constantly receiving members from 

30 the people, and constantly sending down members to 
mingle with the people. Any gentleman might become 
a peer, the younger son of a peer was but a gentle- 
man. Grandsons of peers yielded precedence to newly 
made knights. The dignity of knighthood was not beyond 

35 the reach of any man who could by diligence and thrift 
realise a good estate, or who could attract notice by his 
valour in a battle or a siege. It was regarded as no dis- 
paragement for the daughter of a duke, nay of a royal 



duke, to espouse a distinguished commoner. Thus, Sir 
John Howard married the daughter of Thomas Mowbray 
Duke of Norfolk. Sir Richard Pole married the Countess 
of Salisbury, daughter of George Duke of Clarence. Good 
blood was indeed held in high respect ; but between good 5 
blood and the privileges of peerage there was, most fortu- 
nately for our country, no necessary connection. Pedigrees 
as long, and scutcheons as old, were to be found out of the 
House of Lords as in it. There were new men who bore 
the highest titles. There were untitled men well known to 10 
be descended from knights who had broken the Saxon ranks 
at Hastings, and scaled the walls of Jerusalem. There were 
Bohuns, Mowbrays, De Veres, nay, kinsmen of the House 
of Plantagenet, with no higher addition than that of 
Esquire, and with no civil privileges beyond those enjoyed 15 
by every farmer and shopkeeper. There was therefore here 
no line like that which in some other countries divided the 
patrician from the plebeian. The yeoman was not inclined 
to murmur at dignities to which his own children might 
rise. The grandee was not inclined to insult a class into 20 
which his own children must descend. 

After the wars of York and Lancaster, the links which 
connected the nobility and the commonalty became closer 
and more numerous than ever. The extent of the destruc- 
tion which had fallen on the old aristocracy may be inferred 25 
from a single circumstance. In the year 1451 Henry the 
Sixth summoned fifty-three temporal Lords to Parliament. 
The temporal Lords summoned by Henry the Seventh to 
the Parliament of 1485 were only twenty-nine, and of these 
several had recently been elevated to the peerage. During 30 
the following century the ranks of the nobility were largely 
recruited from among the gentry. The constitution of the 
House of Commons tended greatly to promote the salutary 
intermixture of classes. The knight of the shire was the 
connecting link between the baron and the shopkeeper. On 35 
the same benches on which sate the goldsmiths, drapers, and 
grocers, who had been returned to Parliament by the com- 
mercial towns, sate also members who, in any other country, 



36 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. . 

would have been called noblemen, hereditary lords of 
manors, entitled to hold courts and to bear coat armour, and 
able to trace back an honourable descent through many 
generations. Some of them were younger sons and brothers 
5 of lords. Others could boast of even royal blood. At 
length the eldest son of an Earl of Bedford, called in 
courtesy by the second title of his father, offered himself as 
candidate for a seat in the House of Commons, and his 
example was followed by others. Seated in that house, the 

10 heirs of the great peers naturally became as zealous for its 
privileges as any of the humble burgesses with whom they 
were mingled. Thus our democracy was, from an early 
period, the most aristocratic, and our aristocracy the most 
democratic in the world; a peculiarity which has lasted 

15 down to the present day. and which has produced many 
important moral and political effects. 

The government of Henry the Seventh, of his son, 
and of his grandchildren was, on the whole, more arbi- 
trary than that of the Plantagenets. Personal character 

20 may in some degree explain the difference ; for courage 
and force of will were common to all the men and 
women of the House of Tudor. They exercised their 
power during a period of a hundred and twenty years, 
always with vigour, often with violence, sometimes with 

25 cruelty. They, in imitation of the dynasty which had pre- 
ceded them, occasionally invaded the rights of the subject, 
occasionally exacted taxes under the name of loans and 
gifts, and occasionally dispensed with penal statutes : nay, 
though they never presumed to enact any permanent law by 

30 their own authority, they occasionally took upon themselves, 
when Parliament was not sitting, to meet temporary 
exigencies by temporary edicts. It was, however, im- 
possible for the Tudors to carry oppression beyond a certain 
point : for they had no armed force, and they were sur- 

3:» rounded by an armed people. Their palace was guarded by 
a few domestics whom the array of a single shire, or of a 
single ward of London, could with ease have overpowered. 
These haughty princes were therefore under a restraint 



GOVERNMENT OF THE TUDORS. 37 

stronger than any which mere law can impose, under a 
restraint which did not, indeed, prevent them from some- 
times treating an individual in an arbitrary and even in a 
barbarous manner, but which effectually secured the nation 
against general and long continued oppression. They might 5 
safely be tyrants within the precinct of the court : but it 
was necessary for them to watch with constant anxiety the 
temper of the country. Henry the Eighth, for example, 
encountered no opposition when he wished to send Bucking- 
ham and Surrey, Anne Boleyn and Lady Salisbury, to the 10 
scaffold. But when, without the consent of Parliament, he 
demanded of his subjects a contribution amounting to one 
sixth of their goods, he soon found it necessary to retract. 
The cry of hundreds of thousands was that they were 
English and not French, freemen and not slaves. In Kent 15 
the royal commissioners fled for their lives. In Suffolk 
four thousand men appeared in arms. The King's lieu- 
tenants in that country vainly exerted themselves to raise 
an army. Those who did not join in the insurrection 
declared that they would not fight against their brethren in 20 
such a quarrel. Henry, proud and self-willed as he was, 
shrank, not without reason, from a conflict with the roused 
spirit of the nation. He had before his eyes the fate of his 
predecessors who had perished at Berkeley and Pomfret. 
He not only cancelled his illegal commissions ; he not only 25 
granted a general pardon to all the malecontents ; but he 
publicly and solemnly apologised for his infraction of the 
laws. 

His conduct, on this occasion, well illustrates the whole 
policy of his house. The temper of the princes of that 30 
line was hot, and their spirit high : but they understood the 
character of the nation which they governed, and never 
once, like some of their predecessors, and some of their 
successors, carried obstinacy to a fatal point. The dis- 
cretion of the Tudors was such, that their power, though it 35 
was often resisted, was never subverted. The reign of 
everyone of them was disturbed by formidable discontents : 
but the government was always able either to sooth the 



38 macaulay's history. 

mutineers or to conquer and punish them. Sometimes, 
by timely concessions, it succeeded in averting civil hos- 
tilities ; but in general it stood firm, and called for help 
on the nation. The nation obeyed the call, rallied round 
5 the sovereign, and enabled him to quell the disaffected 
minority. 

Thus, from the age of Henry the Third to the age of 
Elizabeth, England grew and flourished under a polity 
which contained the germ of our present institutions, and 

10 which, though not very exactly defined, or very exactly 
observed, was yet effectually prevented from degenerating 
into despotism, by the awe in which the governors stood 
of the spirit and strength of the governed. 

But such a polity is suited only to a particular stage in 

15 the progress of society. The same causes which produce a 
division of labour in the peaceful arts must at length make 
war a distinct science and a distinct trade. A time arrives 
when the use of arms begins to occupy the entire attention 
of a separate class. It soon appears that peasants and 

20 burghers, however brave, are unable to stand their ground 
against veteran soldiers, whose whole life is a preparation 
for the day of battle, whose nerves have been braced by 
long familiarity with danger, and whose movements have all 
the precision of clockwork. It is found that the defence of 

25 nations can no longer be safely entrusted to warriors taken 
from the plough or the loom for a campaign of forty days. 
If any state forms a great regular army, the bordering states 
must imitate the example, or must submit to a foreign yoke. 
But, where a great regular army exists, limited monarchy, 

30 such as it was in the middle ages, can exist no longer. The 
sovereign is at once emancipated from what had been the 
chief restraint on his power; and he inevitably becomes 
absolute, unless he is subjected to checks such as would be 
superfluous in a society where all are soldiers occasionally, 

35 and none permanently. 

With the danger came also the means of escape. In the 
monarchies of the middle ages the power of the sword 
belonged to the prince ; but the power of the purse 



LIMITED AND ABSOLUTE MONARCHIES. 39 

belonged to the nation; and the progress of civilisation, 
as it made the sword of the prince more and more formid- 
able to the nation, made the purse of the nation more artd 
more necessary to the prince. His hereditary revenues 
would no longer suffice, even for the expenses of civil 5 
government. It was utterly impossible that, without a 
regular and extensive system of taxation, he could keep in 
constant efficiency a great body of disciplined troops. The 
policy which the parliamentary assemblies of Europe ought 
to have adopted was to take their stand firmly on their 10 
constitutional right to give or withhold money, and reso- 
lutely to refuse funds for the support of armies, till ample 
securities had been provided against despotism. 

This wise policy was followed in our country alone. In 
the neighbouring kingdoms great military establishments 15 
were formed ; no new safeguards for public liberty were 
devised; and the consequence was, that the old parlia- 
mentary institutions everywhere ceased to exist. In France, 
where they had always been feeble, they languished, and at 
length died of mere weakness. In Spain, where they had 20 
been as strong as in any part of Europe, they struggled 
fiercely for life, but struggled too late. The mechanics 
of Toledo and Valladolid vainly defended the privileges 
of the Castilian Cortes against the veteran battalions of 
Charles the Fifth. As vainly, in the next generation, 25 
did the citizens of Saragossa stand up against Philip 
the Second, for the old constitution of Aragon. One 
after another, the great national councils of the conti- 
nental monarchies, councils once scarcely less proud and 
powerful than those which sate at Westminster, sank into 30 
utter insignificance. If they met, they met merely as 
our Convocation now meets, to go through some venerable 
forms. 

In England events took a different course. This singular 
felicity she owed chiefly to her insular situation. Before the 35 
end of the fifteenth century great military establishments were 
indispensable to the dignity, and even to the safety, of the 
French and Castilian monarchies. If either of those two powers 



40 macatjlay's history. 

had disarmed, it would soon have been compelled to submit 
to the dictation of the other. But England, protected by the 
sea against invasion, and rarely engaged in warlike opera- 
tions on the Continent, was not, as yet, under the necessity 
5 of employing regular troops. The sixteenth century, the 
seventeenth century, found her still without a standing army. 
At the commencement of the seventeenth century political 
science had made considerable progress. The fate of the 
Spanish Cortes and of the French States General had given 

10 solemn warning to our Parliaments ; and our Parliaments, 
fully aware of the nature and magnitude of the danger, 
adopted, in good time, a system of tactics which, after a 
contest protracted through three generations, was at length 
successful. 

15 Almost every writer who has treated of that contest has 
been desirous to show that his own party was the party 
which was struggling to preserve the old constitution 
unaltered. The truth, however, is that the old constitution 
could not be preserved unaltered. A law, beyond the 

20 control of human wisdom, had decreed that there should no 
longer be governments of that peculiar class which, in the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had been common 
throughout Europe. The question, therefore, was not 
whether our polity should undergo a change, but what the 

25 nature of the change should be. The introduction of a new 
and mighty force had disturbed the Avhole equilibrium, and 
had turned one limited monarchy after another into an 
absolute monarchy. What had happened elsewhere would 
assuredly have happened here, unless the balance had been 

30 redressed by a great transfer of power from the crown to 
the parliament. Our princes were about to have at their 
command means of coercion such as no Plantagenet or 
Tudor had ever possessed. They must inevitably have 
become despots, unless they had been, at the same time, 

35 placed under restraints to which no Plantagenet or Tudor 
had ever been subject. 

It seems certain, therefore, that, had none but political 
causes been at work, the seventeenth century would not 



THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS. 41 

have passed away without a fierce conflict between our 
Kings and their Parliaments. But other causes of per- 
haps greater potency contributed to produce the same 
effect. While the government of the Tudors was in its 
highest vigour an event took place which has coloured 5 
the destinies of all Christian nations, and in an especial 
manner the destinies of England. Twice during the 
middle ages the mind of Europe had risen up against 
the domination of Rome. The first insurrection broke 
out in the south of France. The energy of Innocent 10 
the Third, the zeal of the young orders of Francis and 
Dominic, and the ferocity of the Crusaders whom the priest- 
hood let loose on an unwarlike population, crushed the Albi- 
gensian churches. The second reformation had its origin in 
England, and spread to Bohemia. The Council of Constance, 15 
by removing some ecclesiastical disorders which had given 
scandal to Christendom and the princes of Europe, by un- 
sparingly using fire and sword against the heretics, succeeded 
in arresting and turning back the movement. Nor is this 
much to be lamented. The sympathies of a Protestant, it 20 
is true, will naturally be on the side of the Albigensians and 
of the Lollards. Yet an enlightened and temperate Pro- 
testant will perhaps be disposed to doubt whether the 
success, either of the Albigensians or of the Lollards, would, 
on the whole, have promoted the happiness and virtue of 25 
mankind. Corrupt as the Church of Pome was, there is 
reason to believe that, if that Church had been overthrown 
in the twelfth or even in the fourteenth century, the vacant 
space would have been occupied by some system more 
corrupt still. There was then, through the greater part of 30 
Europe, very little knowledge; and that little was confined 
to the clergy. Not one man in five hundred could have spelled 
his way through a psalm. Books were few and costly. The 
art of printing was unknown. Copies of the Bible, inferior 
in beauty and clearness to those which every cottager may 35 
now command, sold for prices which many priests could not 
afford to give. It was obviously impossible that 'the laity 
should search the Scriptures for themselves. It is probable 



42 macatjlay's history. 

therefore, that, as soon as they had put off one spiritual yoke, 
they would have put on another, and that the power lately 
exercised by the clergy of the Church of Rome would have 
passed to a far worse class of teachers. The sixteenth 
5 century was comparatively a time of light. Yet even in the 
sixteenth century a considerable number of those who 
quitted the old religion followed the first confident and 
plausible guide who offered himself, and were soon led into 
errors far more serious than those which they had re- 

10 nounced. Thus Matthias and Kniperdoling, apostles of lust, 
robbery, and murder, were able for a time to rule great 
cities. In a darker age such false prophets might have 
founded empires, and Christianity might have been dis- 
torted into a cruel and licentious superstition, more noxious, 

15 not only than Popery, but even than Islamism. 

About a hundred years after the rising of the Council of 
Constance, that great change emphatically called the Re- 
formation began. The fulness of time was now come. The 
clergy were no longer the sole or the chief depositories of 

20 knowledge. The invention of printing had furnished the 
assailants of the Church with a mighty weapon which had 
been wanting to their predecessors. The study of the 
ancient writers, the rapid development of the powers of the 
modern languages, the unprecedented activity which was 

25 displayed in every department of literature, the political 
state of Europe, the vices of the Roman court, the exactions 
of the Roman chancery, the jealousy with which the wealth 
and privileges of the clergy were naturally regarded by lay- 
men, the jealousy with which the Italian ascendency was 

30 naturally regarded by men born on our side of the Alps, all 
these things gave to the teachers of the new theology an 
advantage which they perfectly understood how to use. 

Those who hold that the influence of the Church of 
Rome in the dark ages was, on the whole, beneficial to man- 

35 kind, may yet with perfect consistency regard the Reforma- 
tion as an inestimable blessing. The leading strings, which 
preserve and uphold the infant, would impede the full- 
grown man. And so the very means by which the human 






THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS. 43 

mind is, in one stage of its progress, supported and propelled, 
may, in another stage, be mere hindrances. There is a 
season in the life both of an individual and of a society, at 
which submission and faith, such as at a later period would 
be justly called servility and credulity, are useful qualities. 5 
The child who teachably and undoubtingly listens to the 
instructions of his elders is likely to improve rapidly. But 
the man who should receive with childlike docility every 
assertion and dogma uttered by another man no wiser than 
himself would become contemptible. It is the same with 10 
communities. The childhood of the European nations was 
passed under the tutelage of the clergy. The ascendency of 
the sacerdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally 
and properly belongs to intellectual superiority. The priests, 
with all their faults, were by far the wisest portion of 15 
society. It was, therefore, on the whole, good that they 
should be respected and obeyed. The encroachments of the 
ecclesiastical power on the province of the civil power pro- 
duced much more happiness than misery, while the eccle- 
siastical power was in the hands of the only class that had 20 
studied history, philosophy, and public law, and while the 
civil power was in the hands of savage chiefs, who could 
not read their own grants and edicts. But a change took 
place. Knowledge gradually spread among laymen. At 
the commencement of the sixteenth century many of them 25 
were in every intellectual attainment fully equal to the most 
enlightened of their spiritual pastors. Thenceforward that 
dominion, which, during the dark ages, had been, in spite of 
many abuses, a legitimate and salutary guardianship, became 
an unjust and noxious tyranny. 30 

From the time when the barbarians overran the Western 
Empire to the time of the revival of letters, the influence 
of the Church of Eome had been generally favourable to 
science, to civilisation, and to good government. But, 
during the last three centuries, to stunt the growth of the 35 
human mind has been her chief object. Throughout 
Christendom, whatever advance has been made in know- 
ledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in the arts of life, has 



44 macaulay's history. 

been made in spite of her, and has everywhere been in 
inverse proportion to her power. The loveliest and most 
fertile provinces of Europe have, under her rule, been sunk 
in poverty, in political servitude, and in intellectual torpor, 
5 while Protestant countries, once proverbial for sterility and 
barbarism, have been turned by skill and industry into 
gardens, and can boast of a long list of heroes and states- 
men, philosophers and poets. Whoever, knowing what 
Italy and Scotland naturally are, and what, four hundred 

10 years ago, they actually were, shall now compare the 
country round Rome with the country round Edinburgh, 
will be able to form some judgment as to the tendency of 
Papal domination. The descent of Spain, once the first 
among monarchies, to the lowest depths of degradation, the 

15 elevation of Holland, in spite of many natural dis- 
advantages, to a position such as no commonwealth so small 
has ever reached, teach the same lesson. Whoever passes 
in Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant 
principality, in Switzerland from a Roman Catholic to a 

20 Protestant canton, in Ireland from a Roman Catholic to a 
Protestant county, finds that he has passed from a lower to 
a higher grade of civilisation. On the other side of the 
Atlantic the same law prevails. The Protestants of the 
United States have left far behind them the Roman 

25 Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The Roman 
Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert, while the whole 
continent round them is in a ferment with Protestant 
activity and enterprise. The French have doubtless shown 
an energy and an intelligence which, even when- mis- 

30 directed, have justly entitled them to be called a great 
people. But this apparent exception, when examined, will 
be found to confirm the rule ; for in no country that is 
called Roman Catholic has the Roman Catholic Church, 
during several generations, possessed so little authority as in 

35 France. The literature of France is justly held in high 
esteem throughout the world. But if we deduct from 
that literature all that belongs to four parties which have 
been, on different grounds, in rebellion against the Papal 



THE REFORMATION AND ITS EFFECTS. 45 

domination, all that belongs to the Protestants, all that 
belongs to the assertors of the Gallican liberties, all that 
belongs to the Jansenists, and all that belongs to the 
philosophers, how much will be left? 

It is difficult to say whether England owes more to the 5 
Roman Catholic religion or to the Reformation. For the 
amalgamation of races and for the abolition of villenage, 
she is chiefly indebted to the influence which the priesthood 
in the middle ages exercised over the laity. For political 
and intellectual freedom, and for all the blessings which 10 
political and intellectual freedom have brought in their 
train, she is chiefly indebted- to the great rebellion of the 
laity against the priesthood. 

The struggle between the old and the new theology 
in our country was long, and the event sometimes seemed 15 
doubtful. There were two extreme parties, prepared to act 
with violence or to suffer with stubborn resolution. Between 
them lay, during a considerable time, a middle party, which 
blended, very illogically, but by no means unnaturally, 
lessons learned in the nursery with the sermons of the 20 
modern evangelists, and, while clinging with fondness to old 
observances, yet detested abuses with which those observ- 
ances were closely connected. Men in such a frame of 
mind were willing to obey, almost with thankfulness, the 
dictation of an able ruler who spared them the trouble of 25 
judging for themselves, and, raising a firm and commanding 
voice above the uproar of controversy, told them how to 
worship and what to believe. It is not strange, therefore, 
that the Tudors should have been able to exercise a great 
influence on ecclesiastical affairs ; nor is it strange that their 30 
influence should, for the most part, have been exercised 
with a view to their own interest. 

Henry the Eighth attempted to constitute an Anglican 
Church differing from the Roman Catholic Church on 
the point of the supremacy, and on that point alone. His 35 
success in this attempt was extraordinary. The force of his 
character, the singularly favourable situation in which he 
stood with respect to foreign powers, the immense wealth 



46 macaulay's history. 

which the spoliation of the abbeys placed at his disposal, 
and the support of that class which still halted between two 
opinions, enabled him to bid defiance to both the extreme 
parties, to burn as heretics those who avowed the tenets 

5 of the Reformers, and to hang as traitors those who owned 
the authority of the Pope. But Henry's system died with 
him. Had his life been prolonged, he would have found it 
difficult to maintain a position assailed with equal fury by 
all who were zealous either for the new or for the old 

10 opinions. The ministers who held the royal prerogatives in 
trust for his infant son could not venture to persist in 
so hazardous a policy; nor could Elizabeth venture to return 
to it. It was necessary to make a choice. The government 
must either submit to Rome, or must obtain the aid of the 

15 Protestants. The government and the Protestants had only 
one thing in common, hatred of the Papal power. The 
English Reformers were eager to go as far as their 
brethren on the Continent. They unanimously condemned 
as Anti-christian numerous dogmas and practices to which 

20 Henry had stubbornly adhered, and which Elizabeth 
reluctantly abandoned. Many felt a strong repugnance even 
to things indifferent which had formed part of the polity or 
ritual of the mystical Babylon. Thus Bishop Hooper, who 
died manfully at Gloucester for his religion, long refused to 

25 wear the episcopal vestments. Bishop Ridley, a martyr of 
still greater renown, pulled down the ancient altars of his 
diocese, and ordered the Eucharist to be administered in the 
middle of churches, at tables which the Papists irreverently 
termed oyster boards. Bishop Jewel pronounced the clerical 

30 garb to be a stage dress, a fool's coat, a relique of the 
Amorites, and promised that he would spare no labour to 
extirpate such degrading absurdities. Archbishop Grindal 
long hesitated about accepting a mitre from dislike of what 
he regarded as the mummery of consecration. Bishop 

35Parkhurst uttered a fervent prayer that the Church of 
England would propose to herself the Church of Zurich 
as the absolute pattern of a Christian community. Bishop 
Ponet was of opinion that the word Bishop should be 



ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 47 

abandoned to the Papists, and that the chief officers of the 
purified church should be called Superintendents. When it 
is considered that none of these prelates belonged to the 
extreme section of the Protestant party, it cannot be doubted 
that, if the general sense of that party had been followed, 5 
the work of reform would have been carried on as un- 
sparingly in England as in Scotland. 

But, as the government needed the support of the 
Protestants, so the Protestants needed the protection of the 
government. Much was therefore given up on both sides : 10 
an union was effected ; and the fruit of that union was the 
Church of England. 

To the peculiarities of this great institution, and to the 
strong passions which it has called forth in the minds both 
of friends and of enemies, are to be attributed many of the 15 
most important events which have, since the Reformation, 
taken place in our country ; nor can the secular history 
of England be at all understood by us, unless we study it in 
constant connection with the history of her ecclesiastical 
polity. 20 

The man who took the chief part in settling the conditions 
of the alliance which produced the Anglican Church was 
Archbishop Cranmer. He was the representative of both 
the parties which, at that time, needed each other's assistance. 
He was at once a divine and a courtier. In his character of 25 
divine he was perfectly ready to go as far in the way 
of change as any Swiss or Scottish Eeformer. In his 
character of courtier he was desirous to preserve that or- 
ganisation which had, during many ages, admirably served the 
purposes of the Bishops of Rome, and might be expected now 30 
to serve equally well the purposes of the English Kings and 
of their ministers. His temper and his understanding 
eminently fitted him to act as mediator. Saintly in his 
professions, unscrupulous in his dealings, zealous for nothing, 
bold in speculation, a coward and a timeserver in action, 35 
a placable enemy and a lukewarm friend, he was in every 
way qualified to arrange the terms of the coalition between 
the religious and the worldly enemies of Popery. 



48 macaulay's history. 

To this day the constitution, the doctrines, and the 
services of the Church, retain the visible marks of the 
compromise from which she sprang. She occupies a 
middle position between the Churches of Rome and 
5 Geneva. Her doctrinal confessions and discourses, com- 
posed by Protestants, set forth principles of theology in 
which Calvin or Knox would have found scarcely a word to 
disapprove. Her prayers and thanksgivings, derived from 
the ancient Breviaries, are very generally such that Cardinal 

10 Fisher or Cardinal Pole might have heartily joined in them. 
A controversialist who puts an Arminian sense on her 
Articles and Homilies will be pronounced by candid men to 
be as unreasonable as a controversialist who denies that the 
doctrine of baptismal regeneration can be discovered in her 

15 Liturgy. 

The Church of Rome held that episcopacy was of divine 
institution, and that certain supernatural graces of a high 
order had been transmitted by the imposition of hands 
through fifty generations, from the Eleven who received 

20 their commission on the Galilean mount, to the bishops who 
met at Trent. A large body of Protestants, on the other 
hand, regarded prelacy as positively unlawful, and persuaded 
themselves that they found a very different form of 
ecclesiastical government prescribed in Scripture. The 

25 founders of the Anglican Church took a middle course. 
They retained episcopacy ; but they did not declare it to be 
an institution essential to the welfare of a Christian Society, 
or to the efficacy of the sacraments. Cranmer, indeed, 
plainly avowed his conviction that, in the primitive times, 

30 there was no distinction between bishops and priests, and 
that the laying on of hands was altogether unnecessary. 

Among the Presbyterians, the conduct of public worship 
is, to a great extent, left to the minister. Their prayers, 
therefore, are not exactly the same in any two assemblies on 

•35 the same day, or on any two days in the same assembly. 
In one parish they are fervent, eloquent, and full of 
meaning. In the next parish they may be languid or 
absurd. The priests of the Roman Catholic Church, on the 



HER PECULIAR CHARACTER. 49 

other hand, have, during many generations, daily chaunted 
the same ancient confessions, supplications, and thanks- 
givings, in India and Lithuania, in Ireland and Peru. The 
service, being in a dead language, is intelligible only to the 
learned ; and the great majority of the congregation may be 5 
said to assist as spectators rather than as auditors. Here, 
again, the Church of England took a middle course. She 
copied the Roman Catholic forms of prayer, but translated 
them into the vulgar tongue, and invited the illiterate 
multitude to join its voice to that of the minister. 10 

In every part of her system the same policy may be traced. 
Utterly rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation, and 
condemning as idolatrous all adoration paid to the sacra- 
mental bread and wine, she yet, to the disgust of the Puritan, 
required her children to receive the memorials of divine 15 
love, meekly kneeling upon their knees. Discarding many 
rich vestments which surrounded the altars of the ancient 
faith, she yet retained, to the horror of weak minds, a robe 
of white linen, typical of the purity which belonged to her 
as the mystical spouse of Christ. Discarding a crowd of 20 
pantomimic gestures which, in the Roman Catholic worship, 
are substituted for intelligible words, she yet shocked many 
rigid Protestants by marking the infant just sprinkled 
from the font with the sign of the cross. The Roman 
Catholic addressed his prayers to a multitude of Saints, 25 
among whom were numbered many men of doubtful, and 
some of hateful, character. The Puritan refused the 
addition of Saint even to the apostle of the Gentiles, and to 
the disciple whom Jesus loved. The Church of England, 
though she asked for the intercession of no created being, 30 
still set apart days for the commemoration of some who had 
done and suffered great things for the faith. She retained 
confirmation and ordination as edifying rites ; but she 
degraded them from the rank of sacraments. Shrift was 
no part of her system. Yet she gently invited the dying 35 
penitent to confess his sins to a divine, and empowered her 
ministers to sooth the departing soul by an absolution which 
breathes the very spirit of the old religion. In general 

E 



50 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. 

it may be said that she appeals more to the understanding, 
and less to the senses and the imagination, than the Church 
of Rome, and that she appeals less to the understanding, 
and more to the senses and imagination, than the Protestant 
5 Churches of Scotland, France, and Switzerland. 

Nothing, however, so strongly distinguished the Church 
of England from other Churches as the relation in which 
she stood to the monarchy. The King was her head. 
The limits of the authority which he possessed, as such, 

10 were not traced, and indeed have never yet been traced, 
with precision. The laws which declared him supreme 
in ecclesiastical matters were drawn rudely and in general 
terms. If, for the purpose of ascertaining the sense of 
those laws, we examine the books and lives of those who 

15 founded the English Church, our perplexity will be in- 
creased. For the founders of the English Church wrote 
and acted in an age of violent intellectual fermentation, 
and of constant action and reaction. They therefore 
often contradicted each other, and sometimes contradicted 

20 themselves. That the King was, under Christ, sole head 
of the Church, was a doctrine which they all with one 
voice affirmed : but those words had very different signi- 
fications in different mouths, and in the same mouth at 
different conjunctures. Sometimes an authority which 

25 would have satisfied Hildebrand was ascribed to the 
sovereign : then it dwindled down to an authority little 
more than that which had been claimed by many ancient 
English princes who had been in constant communion with 
the Church of Rome. What Henry and his favourite 

30 counsellors meant, at one time, by the supremacy, was 
certainly nothing less than the whole power of the keys. 
The King was to be the Pope of his kingdom, the vicar 
of God, the expositor of Catholic verity, the channel of 
sacramental graces. He arrogated to himself the right 

35 of deciding dogmatically what was orthodox doctrine and 
what was heresy, of drawing up and imposing confessions of 
faith, and of giving religious instruction to his people, 
lie proclaimed that all jurisdiction, spiritual as well as 



DELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE CROWN. 51 

temporal, was derived from him alone, and that it was in his 
power to confer episcopal authority, and to take it away. 
He actually ordered his seal to be put to commissions by 
which bishops were appointed, who were to exercise 
their functions as his deputies, and during his pleasure. 5 
According to this system, as expounded by Cranmer, the 
King was the spiritual as well as the temporal chief of 
the nation. In both capacities His Highness must have 
lieutenants. As he appointed civil officers to keep his seal, 
to collect his revenues, and to dispense justice in his name, 10 
so he appointed divines of various rank's to preach the gospel, 
and to administer the sacraments. It was unnecessary that 
there should be any imposition of hands. The King — such 
was the opinion of Cranmer given in the plainest words 
— might, in virtue of authority derived from God, make 15 
a priest ; and the priest so made needed no ordination 
whatever. These opinions the Archbishop, in spite of the 
opposition of less courtly divines, followed out to every 
legitimate consequence. He held that his own spiritual 
functions, like the secular functions of the Chancellor and 20 
Treasurer, were at once determined by a demise of the crown. 
When Henry died, therefore, the Primate and his suffragans 
took out fresh commissions, empowering them to ordain and 
to govern the Church till the new sovereign should think fit 
to order otherwise. When it was objected that a power 25 
to bind and to loose, altogether distinct from temporal power, 
had been given by our Lord to his apostles, some theologians 
of this school replied that the power to bind and to loose 
had descended, not to the clergy, but to the whole body 
of Christian men, and ought to be exercised by the chief 30 
magistrate as the representative of the society. When it was 
objected that Saint Paul had spoken of certain persons whom 
the Holy Ghost had made overseers and shepherds of the 
faithful, it was answered that King Henry was the very over- 
seer, the very shepherd, whom the Holy Ghost had appointed, 35 
and to whom the expressions of Saint Paul applied. 1 

1 See a very curious paper which Strype believed to be in Gardiner's 
handwriting. Ecclesiastical Memorials, Book I. Chap. xvii. 



52 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. 

These high pretensions gave scandal to Protestants as well 
as to Catholics ; and the scandal was greatly increased when 
the supremacy, which Mary had resigned back to the Pope, 
was again annexed to the crown, on the accession of 

5 Elizabeth. It seemed monstrous that a woman should be the 
chief bishop of a Church in which an apostle had forbidden 
her even to let her voice be heard. The Queen, therefore, 
found it necessary expressly to disclaim that sacerdotal 
character which her father had assumed, and which, 

10 according to Cranmer, had been inseparably joined, by divine 
ordinance, to the regal function. When the Anglican 
confession of faith was revised in her reign, the supremacy 
was explained in a manner somewhat different from that 
which had been fashionable at the court of Henry. Cranmer 

15 had declared, in emphatic terms, that God had immediately 
committed to Christian princes the whole cure of all their 
subjects, as well concerning the administration of God's 
word for the cure of souls, as concerning the administration 
of things political. 1 The thirty-seventh article of religion, 

20 framed under Elizabeth, declares, in terms as emphatic, that 
the ministering of God's word does not belong to princes. 
The Queen, however, still had over the Church a visitatorial 
power of vast and undefined extent. She was entrusted by 
Parliament with the office of restraining and punishing 

25 heresy and every sort of ecclesiastical abuse, and was 
permitted to delegate her authority to commissioners. The 
Bishops were little more than her ministers. Rather than 
grant to the civil magistrate the absolute power of nominating 
spiritual pastors, the Church of Rome, in the eleventh 

30 century, set all Europe on fire. Rather than grant to the 
civil magistrate the absolute power of nominating spiritual 
pastors, the ministers of the Church of Scotland, in our own 
time, resigned their livings by hundreds. The Church of 
England had no such scruples. By the royal authority 

35 alone her prelates were appointed. By the royal authority 
alone her Convocations were summoned, regulated, prorogued, 

1 These are Cranmer's own words. See the Appendix to Burnet's 
History of the Reformation, Part I. Book III. No. 21. Question 9. 



RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE CROWN. 53 

and dissolved. Without the royal sanction her canons had 
no force. One of the articles of her faith was that without 
the royal consent no ecclesiastical council could lawfully 
assemble. From all her judicatures an appeal lay, in the 
last resort, to the sovereign, even when the question was 5 
whether an opinion ought to be accounted heretical, or 
whether the administration of a sacrament had been valid. 
Nor did the Church grudge this extensive power to our 
princes. By them she had been called into existence, 
nursed through a feeble infancy, guarded from Papists on 10 
one side and from Puritans on the other, protected against 
Parliaments which bore her no good will, and avenged on 
literary assailants whom she found it hard to answer. Thus 
gratitude, hope, fear, common attachments, common enmities, 
bound her to the throne. All her traditions, all her tastes, 15 
were monarchical. Loyalty became a point of professional 
honour among her clergy, the peculiar badge which dis- 
tinguished them at once from Calvinists and from Papists. 
Both the Calvinists and the Papists, widely as they differed 
in other respects, regarded with extreme jealousy all 20 
encroachments of the temporal power on the domain of the 
spiritual power. Both .Calvinists and Papists maintained 
that subjects might justifiably draw the sword against 
ungodly rulers. In France Calvinists resisted Charles the 
Ninth : Papists resisted Henry the Fourth : both Papists 25 
and Calvinists resisted Henry the Third. In Scotland 
Calvinists led Mary captive. On the north of the Trent 
Papists took arms against the English throne. The Church 
of England meantime condemned both Calvinists and 
Papists, and loudly boasted that no duty was more constantly 30 
or earnestly inculcated by her than that of submission to 
princes. 

The advantages which the crown derived from this close 
alliance with the Established Church were great ; but they 
were not without serious drawbacks. The compromise 35 
arranged by Cranmer had from the first been considered by 
a large body of Protestants as a scheme for serving two 
masters, as an attempt to unite the worship of the Lord 



54 macaulay's history. 

with the worship of Baal. In the days of Edward the 
Sixth the scruples of this party had repeatedly thrown 
great difficulties in the way of the government. When 
Elizabeth came to the throne, those difficulties were much 
5 increased. Violence naturally engenders violence. The 
spirit of Protestantism was therefore far fiercer and more 
intolerant after the cruelties of Mary than before them. 
Many persons who were warmly attached to the new 
opinions had, during the evil days, taken refuge in Switzer- 

10 land and Germany. They had been hospitably received 
by their brethren in the faith, had sate at the feet of 
the great doctors of Strasburg, Zurich, and Geneva, and 
had been, during some years, accustomed to a more simple 
worship, and to a more democratical form of church 

15 government, than England had yet seen. These men 
returned to their country, convinced that the reform which 
had been effected under King Edward had been far less 
searching and extensive than the interests of pure religion 
required. But it was in vain that they attempted to obtain 

20 any concession from Elizabeth. Indeed her system, wherever 
it differed from her brother's, seemed to them to differ for 
the worse. They were little disposed to submit, in matters 
of faith, to any human authority. They had recently, in 
reliance on their own interpretation of Scripture, risen up 

25 against a Church strong in immemorial antiquity and 
catholic consent. It was by no common exertion of in- 
tellectual energy that they had thrown off the yoke of that 
gorgeous and imperial superstition ; and it was vain to 
expect that, immediately after such an emancipation, they 

30 would patiently submit to a new spiritual tyranny. Long- 
accustomed, when the priest lifted up the host, to bow down 
with their faces to the earth, as before a present God, they 
had learned to treat the mass as an idolatrous mummery. 
Long accustomed to regard the Pope as the successor of the 

35 chief of the apostles, as the bearer of the keys of earth and 
heaven, they had learned to regard him as the Beast, the 
Antichrist, the Man of Sin. It was not to be expected that 
they would immediately transfer to an upstart authority the 



REPUBLICAN SPIRIT OF THE PURITANS. 55 

homage which they had withdrawn from the Vatican ; that 
they would submit their private judgment to the authority 
of a Church founded on private judgment alone ; that they 
would be afraid to dissent from teachers who themselves 
dissented from what had lately been the universal faith of 5 
western Christendom. It is easy to conceive the indignation 
which must have been felt by bold and inquisitive spirits, 
glorying in newly acquired freedom, when an institution 
younger by many years than themselves, an institution 
which had, under their own eyes, gradually received its 10 
form from the passions and interests of a court, began to 
mimic the lofty style of Rome. 

Since these men could not be convinced, it was deter- 
mined that they should be persecuted. Persecution pro- 
duced its natural effect on them. It found them a sect : 15 
it made them a faction. To their hatred of the Church 
was now added hatred of the Crown. The two sentiments 
were intermingled ; and each embittered the other. The 
opinions of the Puritan concerning the relation of ruler 
and subject were widely different from those which were 20 
inculcated in the Homilies. His favourite divines had, 
both by precept, and by example, encouraged resistance to 
tyrants and persecutors. His fellow Calvinists in France, 
in Holland, and in Scotland, were in arms against idolatrous 
and cruel princes. His notions, too, respecting the govern- 25 
ment of the state took a tinge from his notions respecting 
the government of the Church. Some of the sarcasms 
which were popularly thrown on episcopacy might, without 
much difficulty, be turned against royalty; and many of 
the arguments which were used to prove that spiritual 30 
power was best lodged in a synod seemed to lead to the 
conclusion that temporal power was best lodged in a 
parliament. 

Thus, as the priest of the Established Church was, from 
interest, from principle, and from passion, zealous for the 35 
royal prerogatives, the Puritan was, from interest, from 
principle, and from passion, hostile to them. The power of 
the discontented sectaries was great. They were found in 



56 macaulay's history. 

every rank ; but they were strongest among the mercantile 
classes in the towns, and among the small proprietors in the 
country. Early in the reign of Elizabeth they began to 
return a majority of the House of Commons. And doubtless, 
5 had our ancestors been then at liberty to fix their attention 
entirely on domestic questions, the strife between the Crown 
and the Parliament would instantly have commenced. But 
that was no season for internal dissensions. It might, 
indeed well be doubted whether the firmest union among all 

10 the orders of the state could avert the common danger by 
which all were threatened. Roman Catholic Europe and 
reformed Europe were struggling for death or life. Erance, 
divided against herself, had, for a time, ceased to be of any 
account in Christendom. The English government was at 

15 the head of the Protestant interest, and, while persecuting 
Presbyterians at home, extended a powerful protection to 
Presbyterian Churches abroad. At the head of the opposite 
party was the mightiest prince of the age, a prince who 
ruled Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, the East and 

20 the West Indies, whose armies repeatedly marched to Paris, 
and whose fleets kept the coasts of Devonshire and Sussex 
in alarm. It long seemed probable that Englishmen would 
have to fight desperately on English ground for their religion 
and independence. Nor were they ever for a moment free 

25 from apprehensions of some great treason at home. For in 
that age it had become a point of conscience and of honour 
with many men of generous natures to sacrifice their country 
to their religion. A succession of dark plots, formed by 
Roman Catholics against the life of the Queen and the 

30 existence of the nation, kept society in constant alarm. 
Whatever might be the faults of Elizabeth it was plain 
that, to speak humanly, the fate of the realm and of all 
reformed Churches was staked on the security of her person 
and on the success of her administration. To strengthen 

35 her hands was, therefore, the first duty of a patriot and a 
Protestant ; and that duty was well performed. The 
Puritans, even in the depths of the prisons to which she 
had sent them, prayed, and with no simulated fervour, that 



QUESTION OF THE MONOPOLIES. 57 

she might be kept from the dagger of the assassin, that 
rebellion might be put down under her feet, and that her 
arms might be victorious by sea and land. One of the most 
stubborn of the stubborn sect, immediately after his hand 
had been lopped off for an offence into which he had been5 
hurried by his intemperate zeal, waved his hat with the hand 
which was still left him, and shouted "God save the Queen!" 
The sentiment with which these men regarded her has 
descended to their posterity. The Nonconformists, rigorously 
as she treated them, have, as a body, always venerated her 10 
memory. 1 . 

During the greater part of her reign, therefore, the 
Puritans in the House of Commons, though sometimes 
mutinous, felt no disposition to array themselves in systematic 
opposition to the government. But, when the defeat of the 15 
Armada, the successful resistance of the United Provinces to 
the Spanish power, the firm establishment of Henry the 
Fourth on the throne of France, and the death of Philip the 
Second, had secured the State and the Church against all 
danger from abroad, an obstinate struggle, destined to last 20 
during several generations, instantly began at home. 

It was in the Parliament of 1601 that the opposition 
which had, during forty years, been silently gathering and 
husbanding strength, fought its first great battle and won 
its first victory. The ground was well chosen. The 25 
English sovereigns had always been entrusted with the 
supreme direction of commercial police. It was their 
undoubted prerogative to regulate coin, weights, and 
measures, and to appoint fairs, markets, and ports. The 

1 The Puritan historian, Neal, after censuring the cruelty with 30 
which she treated the sect to which he belonged, concludes thus : 
" However, notwithstanding all these blemishes, Queen Elizabeth 
stands upon record as a wise and politic princess, for delivering her 
kingdom from the difficulties in which it was involved at her accession, 
for preserving the Protestant reformation against the potent attempts 35 
of the Pope, the Emperor, and King of Spain abroad, and the Queen 
of Scots and her Popish subjects at home. . . . She was the glory of 
the age in which she lived, and will be the admiration of posterity." — 
History of the Pur'itans, Part I. Chap. viii. 



58 macaulay's history. 

line which bounded their authority over trade had, as 
usual, been but loosely drawn. They, therefore, as usual, 
encroached on the province which rightfully belonged to 
the legislature. The encroachment was, as usual, patiently 
5 borne till it became serious. But at length the Queen 
took upon herself to grant patents of monopoly by scores. 
There was scarcely a family in the realm which did not 
feel itself aggrieved by the oppression and extortion which 
this abuse naturally caused. Iron, oil, vinegar, coal, salt- 

10 petre, lead, starch, yarn, skins, leather, glass, could be 
bought only at exorbitant prices. The House of Commons 
met in an angry and determined mood. It was in vain that 
a courtly minority blamed the Speaker for suffering the acts 
of the Queen's Highness to be called in question. The 

15 language of the discontented party was high and menacing, 
and was echoed by the voice of the whole nation. The 
coach of the chief minister of the crown was surrounded by 
an indignant populace, who cursed the monopolies, and 
exclaimed that the prerogative should not be suffered to 

20 touch the old liberties of England. There seemed for a 
moment to be some danger that the long and glorious reign 
of Elizabeth would have a shameful and disastrous end. 
She, however, with admirable judgment and temper, declined 
the contest, put herself at the head of the reforming party, 

25 redressed the grievance, thanked the Commons, in touching 
and dignified language, for their tender care of the general 
weal, brought back to herself the hearts of the people, and 
left to her successors a memorable example of the way in 
which it behoves a ruler to deal with public movements 

30 which he has not the means of resisting. 

In the year 1603 the great Queen died. That year is, on 
many accounts, one of the most important epochs in our 
history. It was then that both Scotland and Ireland became 
parts of the same empire with England. Both Scotland and 

35 Ireland, indeed, had been subjugated by the Plantagenets ; 
but neither country had been patient under the yoke. 
Scotland had, with heroic energy, vindicated her independ- 
ence, had, from the time of Robert Bruce, been a separate 



SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 59 

kingdom, and was now joined to the southern part of the 
island in a manner which rather gratified than wounded her 
national pride. Ireland had never, since the days of Henry 
the Second, been able to expel the foreign invaders ; but she 
had struggled against them long and fiercely. During the 5 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the English power in that 
island was constantly declining, and in the days of Henry 
the Seventh, sank to the lowest point. The Irish dominions 
of that prince consisted only of the counties of Dublin and 
Louth, of some parts of Meath and Kildare, and of a few 10 
seaports scattered along the coast. A large portion even of 
Leinster was not yet divided into counties. Munster, Ulster, 
and Connaught were ruled by petty sovereigns, partly Celts, 
and partly degenerate Normans, who had forgotten their 
origin and had adopted the Celtic language and manners. 15 
But, during the sixteenth century, the English power had 
made great progress. The half savage chieftains who 
reigned beyond the pale had submitted one after another to 
the lieutenants of the Tudors. At length, a few weeks 
before the death of Elizabeth, the conquest, which had been 20 
begun more than four hundred years before by Strongbow, 
was completed by Mountjoy. Scarcely had James the First 
mounted the English throne when the last O'Donnell and 
O'Neill who have held the rank of independent princes kissed 
his hand at Whitehall. Thenceforward his writs ran and 25 
his judges held assizps in every part of Ireland ; and the 
English law superseded the customs which had pievailed 
among the aboriginal tribes. 

In extent Scotland and Ireland were nearly equal to each 
other, and were together nearly equal to England, but were 30 
much less thickly peopled than England, and were very far 
behind England in wealth and civilisation. Scotland had 
been kept back by the sterility of her soil ; and, in the 
midst of light, the thick darkness of the middle ages still 
rested on Ireland. 35 

The population of Scotland, with the exception of the 
Celtic tribes which were thinly scattered over the Hebrides 
and over the mountainous parts of the northern shires, was 



60 macaulay's history. 

of the same blood with the population of England, and 
spoke a tongue which did not differ from the purest English 
more than the dialects of Somersetshire and Lancashire 
differed from each other. In Ireland, on the contrary, the 
5 population, with the exception of the small English colony 
near the coast, was Celtic, and still kept the Celtic speech 
and manners. 

In natural courage and intelligence both the nations which 
now became connected with England ranked high. In per- 

10 severance, in self-command, in forethought, in all the virtues 
which conduce to success in life, the Scots have never been 
surpassed. The Irish, on the other hand, were distinguished 
by qualities which tend to make men interesting rather than 
prosperous. They were an ardent and impetuous race, easily 

15 moved to tears or to laughter, to fury or to love. Alone 
among the nations of northern Europe they had the suscepti- 
bility, the vivacity, the natural turn for acting and rhetoric, 
which are indigenous on the shores of the Mediterranean 
Sea. In mental cultivation Scotland had an indisputable 

20 superiority. Though that kingdom was then the poorest in 
Christendom, it already vied in every branch of learning 
with the most favoured countries. Scotsmen, whose dwell- 
ings and whose food were as wretched as those of the 
Icelanders of our time, wrote Latin verse with more than 

25 the delicacy of Yida, and made discoveries in science which 
would have added to the renown of Galileo. Ireland could 
boast of no Buchanan or Xapier. The genius, with which 
her aboriginal inhabitants were largely endowed, showed 
itself as yet only in ballads which, wild and ragged as they 

30 were, seemed to the judging eye of Spencer to contain a 
portion of the pure gold of poetry. Scotland, in becoming 
part of the British monarchy, preserved her dignity. Having, 
during many generations, courageously withstood the English 
arms, she was now joined to her stronger neighbour on the 

35 most honourable terms. She gave a king instead of receiv- 
ing one. She retained her own constitution and laws. Her 
tribunals and parliaments remained entirely independent of 
the tribunals and parliaments which sate at Westminster. 



SCOTLAND AND IRELAND. 61 

The administration of Scotland was in Scottish hands ; for 
no Englishman had any motive to emigrate northward, and 
to contend with the shrewdest and most pertinacious of all 
races for what was to be scraped together in the poorest of 
all treasuries. Nevertheless Scotland by no means escaped 5 
the fate ordained for every country which is connected, but 
not incorporated, with another country of greater resources. 
Though in name an independent kingdom, she was, during 
more than a century, really treated, in many respects, as a 
subject province. 10 

Ireland was undisguisedly governed as a dependency won 
by the sword. Her rude national institutions had perished. 
The English colonists submitted to the dictation of the 
mother country, without whose support they could not exist, 
and indemnified themselves by trampling on the people 15 
among whom they had settled. The parliaments which met 
at Dublin could pass no law which had not been previously 
approved by the English Privy Council. The authority of 
the English legislature extended over Ireland. The executive 
administration was entrusted to men taken either from 20 
England or from the English pale, and, in either case, 
regarded as foreigners, and even as enemies, by the Celtic 
population. 

But the circumstance which, more than any other, has 
made Ireland to differ from Scotland remains to be noticed. 25 
Scotland was Protestant. In no part of Europe had the 
movement of the popular mind against the Roman Catholic 
Church been so rapid and violent. The Reformers had 
vanquished, deposed, and imprisoned their idolatrous 
sovereign. They would not endure even such a compromise 30 
as had been effected in England. They had established the 
Calvinistic doctrine, discipline, and worship; and they made 
little distinction between Popery and Prelacy, between the 
Mass and the Book of Common Prayer. Unfortunately for 
Scotland, the prince whom she sent to govern a fairer 35 
inheritance had been so much annoyed by the pertinacity 
with which her theologians had asserted against him the 
privileges of the synod and the pulpit that he hated the 



62 macaulay's history. 

ecclesiastical polity to which she was fondly attached as 
much as it was in his effeminate nature to hate anything, 
and had no sooner mounted the English throne than he 
began to show an intolerant zeal for the government and 
*> ritual of the English Church. 

The Irish were the only people of northern Europe who 
had remained true to the old religion. This is to be partly 
ascribed to the circumstance that they were some centuries 
behind their neighbours in knowledge. But other causes 

10 had co-operated. The Reformation had been a national as 
well as a moral revolt. It had been, not only an insurrection 
of the laity against the clergy, but also an insurrection of 
all the branches of the great German race against an alien 
domination. It is a most significant circumstance that no 

15 large society of which the tongue is not Teutonic has ever 
turned Protestant, and that, wherever a language derived 
from that of ancient Rome is spoken, the religion of modern 
Rome to this day prevails. The patriotism of the Irish had 
taken a peculiar direction. The object of their animosity 

20 was not Rome, but England ; and they had especial reason 
to abhor those English sovereigns who had been the chiefs 
of the great schism, Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth. 
During the vain struggle which two generations of Milesian 
princes maintained against the Tudors, religious enthusiasm 

25 and national enthusiasm became inseparably blended in the 
minds of the vanquished race. The new feud of Protestant 
and Papist inflamed the old feud of Saxon and Celt. The 
English conquerors, meanwhile, neglected all legitimate 
means of conversion. No care was taken to provide the 

30 vanquished nation with instructors capable of making them- 
selves understood. No translation of the Bible was put 
forth in the Irish language. The government contented 
itself with setting up a vast hierarchy of Protestant arch- 
bishops, bishops, and rectors, who did nothing, and who, for 

35 doing nothing, were paid out of the spoils of a Church 
loved and revered by the great body of the people. 

There was much in the state both of Scotland and of 
Ireland which might well excite the painful apprehensions 



DIMINUTION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ENGLAND. 63 

of a farsiglited statesman. As yet, however, there was the 
appearance of tranquillity. For the first time all the British 
isles were peaceably united under one sceptre. 

It should seem that the weight of England among 
European nations ought, from this epoch, to have greatly 5 
increased. The territory which her new King governed was, 
in extent, nearly double that which Elizabeth had inherited. 
His empire was the most complete within itself and the 
most secure from attack that was to be found in the world. 
The Plantagenets and Tudors had been repeatedly under 10 
the necessity of defending themselves against Scotland 
while they were engaged in continental war. The long 
conflict in Ireland had been a severe and perpetual drain 
on their resources. Yet even under such disadvantages 
those sovereigns had been highly considered throughout 15 
Christendom. It might, therefore, not unreasonably be 
expected that England, Scotland, and Ireland combined 
would form a state second to none that then existed. 

All such expectations were strangely disappointed. On 
the day of the accession of James the First England 20 
descended from the rank which she had hitherto held, and 
began to be regarded as a power hardly of the second 
order. During many years the great British monarchy, 
under four successive princes of the House of Stuart, was 
scarcely a more important member of the European system 25 
than the little kingdom of Scotland had previously been. 
This, however, is little to be regretted. Of James the 
First, as of John, it may be said that, if his administration 
had been able and splendid, it would probably have been fatal 
to our country, and that we owe more to his weakness and 30 
meanness than to the wisdom and courage of much better 
sovereigns. He came to the throne at a critical moment. 
The time was fast approaching when either the King must 
become absolute, or the Parliament must control the whole 
executive administration. Had James been, like Henry the 35 
Fourth, like Maurice of Nassau, or like Gustavus Adolphus, 
a valiant, active, and politic ruler, had he put himself at the 
Jiead of the Protestants of Europe, had he gained great 



64 macaulay's history. 

victories over Tilly and Spinola, had lie adorned West- 
minster with the spoils of Bavarian monasteries and Flemish 
cathedrals, had he hung Austrian and Castilian banners 
in St. Paul's, and had he found himself, after great 
5 achievements, at the head of fifty thousand troops, brave, 
well disciplined, and devotedly attached to his person, the 
English Parliament would soon have been nothing more 
than a name. Happily he was not a man to play such a 
part. He began his administration by putting an end to the 

10 war which had raged during many years between England 
and Spain ; and from that time he shunned hostilities with 
a caution which was proof against the insults of his 
neighbours and the clamours of his subjects. Not till the 
last year of his life could the influence of his son, his 

15 favourite, his Parliament, and his people combined, induce 
him to strike one feeble blow in defence of his family and of 
his religion. It was well for those whom he governed that 
he in this matter disregarded their wishes. The effect of his 
pacific policy was that, in his time, no regular troops were 

20 needed, and that, while France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and 
Germany swarmed with mercenary soldiers, the defence of 
our island was still confided to the militia. 

As the king had no standing army, and did not even 
attempt to form one, it would have been wise in him 

25 to avoid any conflict with his people. But such was 
his indiscretion that, while he altogether neglected the 
means which alone could make him really absolute, he 
constantly put forward, in the most offensive form, claims 
of which none of his predecessors had ever dreamed. 

30 It was at this time that those strange theories which 
Filmer afterwards formed into a system, and which became 
the badge of the most violent class of Tories and high 
churchmen, first emerged into notice. It was gravely 
maintained that the Supreme Being regarded hereditary 

35 monarchy, as opposed to other forms of government, with 
peculiar favour; that the rule of succession in order of 
primogeniture was a divine institution, anterior to the 
Christian, and even to the Mosaic dispensation; that no 



DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RIGHT. 65 

human power, not even that of the whole legislature, no 
length of adverse possession, though it extended to ten 
centuries, could deprive a legitimate prince of his rights; 
that the authority of such a prince was necessarily always 
despotic ; that the laws, by which, in England and in other 5 
countries, the prerogative was limited, were to be regarded 
merely as concessions which the sovereign had freely made 
and might at his pleasure resume; and that any treaty 
which a king might conclude with his people was merely a 
declaration of his present intentions, and not a contract 10 
of which the performance could be demanded It is evident 
that this theory, though intended to strengthen the 
foundations of government, altogether unsettles them. Does 
the divine and immutable law of primogeniture admit 
females, or exclude them % On either supposition half the 15 
sovereigns of Europe must be usurpers, reigning in defiance 
of the law of God, and liable to be dispossessed by the 
rightful heirs. The doctrine that kingly government is 
peculiarly favoured by Heaven receives no countenance 
from the Old Testament ; for in the Old Testament we read 20 
that the chosen people were blamed and punished for 
desiring a king, and that they were afterwards commanded 
to withdraw their allegiance from him. Their whole history, 
far from countenancing the notion that succession in order 
of primogeniture is of divine institution, would rather seem 25 
to indicate that younger brothers are under the especial 
protection of heaven. Isaac was not the eldest son of 
Abraham, nor Jacob of Isaac, nor Judah of Jacob, nor 
David of Jesse, nor Solomon of David. Nor does the 
system of Filmer receive any countenance from those 30 
passages of the New Testament which describe government 
as an ordinance of God : for the government under which 
the writers of the New Testament lived was not a hereditary 
monarchy. The Roman Emperors were republican magistrates 
named by the senate. None of them pretended to rule by -35 
right of birth ; and, in fact, both Tiberius, to whom Christ 
commanded that tribute should be given, and Nero, whom 
Paul directed the Romans to obey, were, according to the 

F 



66 macaulay's history. 

patriarchal theory of government, usurpers. In the middle 
ages the doctrine of indefeasible hereditary right would 
have been regarded as heretical : for it was altogether 
incompatible with the high pretensions of the Church of 
5 Rome. It was a doctrine unknown to the founders of the 
Church of England. The Homily on Wilful Rebellion had 
strongly, and indeed too strongly, inculcated submission 
to constituted authority, but had made no distinction 
between hereditary and elective monarchies, or between 

10 monarchies and republics. Indeed most of the predecessors 
of James would, from personal motives, have regarded the 
patriarchal theory of government with aversion. William 
Rufus, Henry the First, Stephen, John, Henry the Fourth, 
Henry the Fifth, Henry the Sixth, Richard the Third, 

15 and Henry the Seventh, had all reigned in defiance of 
the strict rule of descent. A grave doubt hung over the 
legitimacy both of Mary and of Elizabeth. It was impossible 
that both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn could have 
been lawfully married to Henry the Eighth; and the highest 

20 authority in the realm had pronounced that neither was so. 
The Tudors, far from considering the law of succession as a 
divine and unchangeable institution, were constantly 
tampering with it. Henry the Eighth obtained an act of 
Parliament, giving him power to leave the crown by will, 

25 and actually made a will to the prejudice of the royal family 
of Scotland. Edward the Sixth, unauthorised by Parliament, 
assumed a similar power, with the full approbation of 
the most eminent Reformers. Elizabeth, conscious that her 
own title was open to grave objection, and unwilling to 

30 admit even a reversionary right in her rival and enemy the 
Queen of Scots, induced the Parliament to pass a law, 
enacting that whoever should deny the competency of the 
reigning sovereign, with the assent of the Estates of the 
realm, to alter the succession, should suffer death as a traitor. 

35 But the situation of James was widely ditferent from that of 
Elizabeth. Far inferior to her in abilities and in popularity, 
regarded by the English as an alien, and excluded from the 
throne by the testament of Henry the Eighth, the King of 



DOCTRINE OF DIVINE RIGHT. 67 . 

Scots was yet the undoubted heir of William the Conqueror 
and of Egbert. He had, therefore, an obvious interest in 
inculcating the superstitious notion that birth confers rights 
anterior to law, and unalterable by law. It was a notion, 
moreover, well suited to his intellect and temper. It soon 5 
found many advocates among those who aspired to his 
favour, and made rapid progress among the clergy of the 
Established Church. 

Thus, at the very moment at which a republican spirit 
began to manifest itself strongly in the Parliament and 10 
in the country, the claims of the monarch took a monstrous 
form which would have disgusted the proudest and 
most arbitrary of those who had preceded him on the 
throne. 

James was always boasting of his skill in what he called 15 
kingcraft ; and yet it is hardly possible even to imagine 
a course more directly opposed to all the rules of kingcraft 
than that which he followed. The policy of wise rulers has 
always been to disguise strong acts under popular forms. 
It was thus that Augustus and Napoleon established absolute 20 
monarchies, while the public regarded them merely as 
eminent citizens invested with temporary magistracies. 
The policy of James was the direct reverse of theirs. He 
enraged and alarmed his Parliament by constantly telling 
them that they held their privileges merely during his 25 
pleasure, and that they had no more business to inquire 
what he might lawfully do than what the Deity might 
lawfully do. Yet he quailed before them, abandoned 
minister after minister to their vengeance, and suffered them 
to tease him into acts directly opposed to his strongest 30 
inclinations. Thus the indignation excited by his claims 
and the scorn excited by his concessions went on growing 
together. By his fondness for worthless minions, and by 
the sanction which he gave to their tyranny and rapacity, he 
kept discontent constantly alive. His cowardice, his child- 35 
ishness, his pedantry, his ungainly person and manners, 
his provincial accent, made him an object of derision. 
Even in his virtues and accomplishments there was some- 



68 macaulay's history. 

thing eminently unkingly. Throughout the whole course of 
his reign, all the venerable associations by which the throne 
had long been fenced were gradually losing their strength. 
During two hundred years all the sovereigns who had ruled 
5 England, with the single exception of the unfortunate Henry 
the Sixth, had been strongminded, highspirited, courageous, 
and of princely bearing. Almost all had possessed abilities 
above the ordinary level. It was no light thing that, 
on the very eve of the decisive struggle between our Kings 

10 and their Parliaments, royalty should be exhibited to the 
world stammering, slobbering, shedding unmanly tears, 
trembling at a drawn sword, and talking in a style 
alternately of a buffoon and of a pedagogue. 

In the mean time the religious dissensions, by which, 

15 from the days of Edward the Sixth, the Protestant body 
had been distracted, had become more formidable than 
ever. The interval which had separated the first generation 
of Puritans from Cranmer and Jewel was small indeed 
when compared with the interval which separated the 

20 third generation of Puritans from Laud and Hammond. 
While the recollection of Mary's cruelties was still fresh, 
while the power of the Roman Catholic Party still inspired 
apprehension, while Spain still retained ascendency and 
aspired to universal dominion, all the Reformed sects knew 

25 that they had a strong common interest and a deadly 
common enemy. The animosity which they felt towards 
each other was languid when compared with the animosity 
which they all felt towards Rome. Conformists and Non- 
conformists had heartily joined in enacting penal laws 

30 of extreme severity against the Papists. But when more 
than half a century of undisturbed possession had given 
confidence to the Established Church, when nine tenths 
of the nation had become heartily Protestant, when England 
was at peace with all the world, when there was no danger 

35 that Popery would be forced by foreign arms on the 
nation, when the last confessors who had stood before 
Bonner had passed away, a change took place in the 
feeling of the Anglican clergy. Their hostility to the 



THE CHURCH AND PURITANS. 69 

Roman Catholic doctrine and discipline was considerably 
mitigated. Their dislike of the Puritans, on the other 
hand, increased daily. The controversies which had from 
the beginning divided the Protestant party took such a 
form as made reconciliation hopeless ; and new contro- 5 
versies of still greater importance were added to the old 
subjects of dispute. 

The founders of the Anglican Church had retained 
episcopacy as an ancient, a decent, and a convenient eccle- 
siastical polity, but had not declared that form of Church 10 
government to be of divine institution. We have already 
seen how low an estimate Cranmer had formed of the 
office of a bishop. In the reign of Elizabeth, Jewel, Cooper, 
Whitgift, and other eminent doctors defended prelacy, 
as innocent, as useful, as what the state might lawfully 15 
establish, as what, when established by the state, was 
entitled to the respect of every citizen. But they never 
denied that a Christian community without a bishop might 
be a pure Church. On the contrary, they regarded the 
Protestants of the Continent as of the same household 20 
of faith with themselves. Englishmen in England were 
indeed bound to acknowledge the authority of the bishop, as 
they were bound to acknowledge the authority of the 
sheriff and the coroner : but the obligation was purely 
local. An English churchman, nay even an English prelate, 25 
if he went to Holland, conformed without scruple to the 
established religion of Holland. Abroad the ambassadors of 
Elizabeth and James went in state to the very worship 
which Elizabeth and James persecuted at home, and care- 
fully abstained from decorating their private chapels after 30 
the Anglican fashion, lest scandal should be given to weaker 
brethren. It was even held that Presbyterian ministers were 
entitled to place and voice in oecumenical councils. When 
the States General of the United Provinces convoked at 
Dort a synod of doctors not episcopally ordained an English 35 
bishop and an English dean, commissioned by the head 
of the English Church, sate with those doctors, preached 
to them, and voted with them on the gravest questions 



70 macaulay's history. 

of theology. 1 Nay, many English benefices were held by 
divines who had been admitted to the ministry in the 
Calvinistic form used on the Continent ; nor was reordin- 
ation by a bishop in such cases then thought necessary, or 
5 even lawful. 

But a new race of divines was already rising in the 
Church of England. In their view the episcopal office was 
essential to the welfare of a Christian society .and to the 
efficacy of the most solemn ordinances of religion. To that 

10 office belonged certain high and sacred privileges, which no 
human power could give or take away. A Church might 
as well be without the doctrine of the Trinity, or the 
doctrine of the Incarnation, as without the apostolical 
orders; and the Church of Rome, which, in the midst of 

15 all her corruptions, had retained the apostolical orders, was 
nearer to primitive purity than those Reformed societies 
which had rashly set up, in opposition to the divine model, 
a system invented by men. 

In the days of Edward the Sixth and of Elizabeth, the 

20 defenders of the Anglican ritual had generally contented 
themselves with saying that it might be used without sin, 
and that, therefore, none but a perverse and undutiful 
subject would refuse to use it when enjoined to do so by the 
magistrate. Now, however, that rising party which claimed 

25 for the polity of the Church a celestial origin began to 
ascribe to her services a new dignity and importance. It 
was hinted that, if the established worship had any fault, 
that fault was extreme simplicity, and that the Reformers 
had, in the heat of their quarrel with Rome, abolished 

30 many ancient ceremonies which might with advantage have 
been retained. Days and places were again held in 
mysterious veneration. Some practices which had long 
been disused, and which were commonly regarded as super- 

1 Joseph Hall, then dean of "Worcester, and afterwards hishop of 
35 Norwich, was one of the commissioners. In his life of himself, 
he says: "My unworthiness "was named for one of the assistants 
of that honourable, grave, and reverend meeting." To high church- 
men this humility will seem not a little out of place. 



THE CHURCH AND PURITANS. 71 

stitious mummeries, were revived. Paintings and carvings, 
which had escaped the fury of the first generation of Pro- 
testants, became the objects of a respect such as to many 
seemed idolatrous. 

No part of the system of the old Church had been more 5 
detested by the Reformers than the honour paid to celibacy. 
They held that the doctrine of Rome on this subject had 
been prophetically condemned by the apostle Paul, as a 
doctrine of devils ; and they dwelt much on the crimes and 
scandals which seemed to prove the justice of this awful 10 
denunciation. Luther had evinced his own opinion in the 
clearest manner, by espousing a nun. Some of the most 
illustrious bishops and priests who had died by fire during 
the reign of Mary had left wives and children. Now, 
however, it began to be rumoured that the old monastic 15 
spirit had reappeared in the Church of England ; that there 
was in high quarters a prejudice against married priests ; 
that even laymen, who called themselves Protestants, had 
made resolutions of celibacy which almost amounted to 
vows ; nay, that a minister of the established religion had 20 
set up a nunnery, in which the psalms were chaunted at 
midnight, by a company of virgins dedicated to God. l 

Nor was this all. A class of questions, as to which the 
founders of the Anglican Church and the first generation of 
Puritans had differed little or not at all, began to furnish 25 
matter for fierce disputes. The controversies which had 
divided the Protestant body in its infancy had related 
almost exclusively to Church government and to ceremonies. 
There had been no serious quarrel between the contending 
parties on points of metaphysical theology. The doctrines 30 
held by the chiefs of the hierarchy touching original sin, 
faith, grace, predestination, and election, were those which 
are popularly called Calvinistic. Towards the close of 
Elizabeth's reign, her favourite prelate, Archbishop Whitgift, 
drew up, in concert with the Bishop of London and other 35 

1 Peckard's Life of Ferrar ; The Arminian Nunnery, or a Brief 
Description of the late erected monastical Place called the Arminian 
Nunnery, at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire, 1641. 



72 macaulay's history. 

theologians, the celebrated instrument known by the name 
of the Lambeth Articles. In that instrument the most 
startling of the Calvinistic doctrines are affirmed with a 
distinctness which would shock many who, in our age, are 
5 reputed Calvinists. One clergyman, who took the opposite 
side, and spoke harshly of Calvin, was arraigned for his 
presumption by the University of Cambridge, and escaped 
punishment only by expressing his firm belief in the tenets 
of reprobation and final perseverance, and his sorrow for 

10 the offence which he had given to pious men by reflecting 
on the great French reformer. The school of divinity 
of which Hooker was the chief occupies a middle place 
between the school of Cranmer and the school of Laud ; and 
Hooker has, in modern times, been claimed by the Arminians 

15 as an ally. Yet Hooker pronounced Calvin to have been a 
man superior in wisdom to any other divine that France 
had produced, a man to whom thousands were indebted for 
the knowledge of divine truth, but who was himself 
indebted to God alone. When the Arminian controversy 

20 arose in Holland, the English government and the English 
Church lent strong support to the Calvinistic party ; nor is 
the English name altogether free from the stain which has 
been left on that party by the imprisonment of Grotius and 
the judicial murder of Earneveldt. 

25 But, even before the meeting of the Dutch synod, 
that part of the Anglican clergy which was peculiarly 
hostile to the Calvinistic Church government and to the 
Calvinistic warship had begun to regard with dislike the 
Calvinistic metaphysics ; and this feeling was very naturally 

30 strengthened by the gross injustice, insolence, and cruelty 
of the party which was prevalent at Dort. The Arminian 
doctrine, a doctrine less austerely logical than that of the 
early Reformers, but more agreeable to the popular notions 
of the divine justice and benevolence, spread fast and wide. 

35 The infection soon reached the court. Opinions which, at 
the time of the accession of James, no clergyman could 
have avowed without imminent risk of being stripped of 
his gown, were now the best title to preferment A divine 



THE CHURCH AND PURITANS. 73 

of that age, who was asked by a simple country gentleman 
what the Arminians held, answered, with as much truth as 
wit, that they held all the best bishoprics and deaneries in 
England. 

While a section of the Anglican clergy quitted, in one 5 
direction, the position which they had originally occupied, 
a section of the Puritan body departed, in a direction 
diametrically opposite, from the principles and practices of 
their fathers. The persecution which the separatists had 
undergone had been severe enough to irritate, but not 10 
severe enough to destroy. They had been, not tamed into 
submission, but baited into savageness and stubbornness. 
After the fashion of oppressed sects, they mistook their own 
vindictive feelings for emotions of piety, encouraged in 
themselves by reading and meditation a disposition to brood 15 
over their wrongs, and, when they had worked themselves 
up into hating their enemies, imagined that they were only 
hating the enemies of heaven. In the New Testament 
there was little indeed which, even when perverted by the 
most disingenuous exposition, could seem to countenance 20 
the indulgence of malevolent passions. But the Old 
Testament contained the history of a race selected by God 
to be witnesses of his unity and ministers of his vengeance, 
and specially commanded by him to do many things which, 
if done without his special command, would have been 2d 
atrocious crimes. In such a history it was not difficult for 
fierce and gloomy spirits to find much that might be dis- 
torted to suit their wishes. The extreme Puritans therefore 
began to feel for the Old Testament a preference, which, 
perhaps, they did not distinctly avow even to themselves ; 30 
but which showed itself in all their sentiments and habits. 
They paid to the Hebrew language a respect which they 
refused to that tongue in which the discourses of Jesus and 
the epistles of Paul have come down to us. They baptized 
their children by the names, not of Christian saints, but of 35 
Hebrew patriarchs and warriors. In defiance of the express 
and reiterated declarations of Luther and Calvin, they 
turned the weekly festival by which the Church had, from 



74 macaulay's history. 

the primitive times, commemorated the resurrection of her 
Lord, into a Jewish Sabbath. They sought for principles 
of jurisprudence in the Mosaic law, and for precedents to 
guide their ordinary conduct in the books of Judges and 
5 Kings. Their thoughts and discourse ran much on acts 
which were assuredly not recorded as examples for our 
imitation. The prophet who hewed in pieces a captive- 
king, the rebel general who gave the blood of a queen to 
the dogs, the matron who, in defiance of plighted faith, and 

10 of the laws of eastern hospitality, drove the nail into the 
brain of the fugitive ally who had just fed at her board, 
and who was sleeping under the shadow of her tent, were 
proposed as models to Christians suffering under the 
tyranny of princes and prelates. Morals and manners were 

15 subjected to a code resembling that of the synagogue when 
the synagogue was in its worst state. The dress, the 
deportment, the language, the studies, the amusements of 
the rigid sect were regulated on principles not unlike those 
of the Pharisees who, proud of their washed hands and 

20 1 »road phylacteries, taunted the Redeemer as a sabbath-breaker 
and a winebibber. It was a sin to hang garlands on a May- 
pole, to drink a friend's health, to fly a hawk, to hunt a 
stag, to play at chess, to wear lovelocks, to put starch into a 
ruff, to touch the virginals, to read the Fairy Queen. 

25 Rules such as these, rules which would have appeared 
insupportable to the free and joyous spirit of Luther, and 
contemptible to the serene and philosophical intellect of 
Zwingle, threw over all life a more than monastic gloom. 
The learning and eloquence by which the great Reformers 

30 had been eminently distinguished, and to which they had 
been, in no small measure, indebted for their success, were 
regarded by the new school of Protestants with suspicion, 
if not with aversion. Some precisians had scruples about 
teaching the Latin grammar, because the names of Mars, 

35 Bacchus, and Apollo occurred in it. The fine arts were all 
but proscribed. The solemn peal of the organ was super- 
stitious. The light music of Ben Jonson's masques was 
dissolute. Half the fine paintings in England were 



THE CHURCH AND PURITANS. 75 

idolatrous, and the other half indecent. The extreme 
Puritan was at once known from other men by his gait, his 
garb, his lank hair, the sour solemnity of his face, the 
upturned white of his eyes, the nasal twang with which he 
spoke, and, above all, by his peculiar dialect. He employed, 5 
on every occasion, the imagery and style of Scripture. 
Hebraisms violently introduced into the English language, 
and metaphors borrowed from the boldest lyric poetry of a 
remote age and country, and applied to the common concerns 
of English life, were the most striking peculiarities of this 10 
cant, which moved, not without cause, the derision both of 
prelatists and libertines. 

Thus the political and religious schism which had 
originated in the sixteenth century was, during the first 
quarter of the seventeenth century, constantly widening. 15 
Theories tending to Turkish despotism were in fashion 
at Whitehall. Theories tending to republicanism were in 
favour with a large portion of the House of Commons. 
The violent prelatists who were, to a man, zealous for 
prerogative, and the violent Puritans who were, to a man, 20 
zealous for the privileges of Parliament, regarded each other 
with animosity more intense than that which, in the pre- 
ceding generation, had existed between Catholics and 
Protestants. 

While the minds of men were in this state, the country, 25 
after a peace of many years, at length engaged in a war 
which required strenuous exertions. This war hastened the 
approach of the great constitutional crisis. It was necessary 
that the King should have a large military force. He could 
not have such a force without money. He could not legally 30 
raise the money without the consent of Parliament. It fol- 
lowed, therefore, that he either must administer the govern- 
ment in conformity with the sense of the House of Commons, 
or must venture on such a violation of the fundamental laws 
of the land as had been unknown during several centuries. 35 
The Plantagenets and the Tudors had, it is true, occasionally 
supplied a deficiency in their revenue by a benevolence or a 
forced loan : but these expedients were always of a tempo- 



76 macaulay's history. 

rary nature. To meet the regular charge of a long war by 
regular taxation, imposed without the consent of the Estates 
of the realm, was a course which Henry the Eighth himself 
would not have dared to take. It seemed, therefore, that 
5 the decisive hour was approaching, and that the English 
Parliament would soon either share the fate of the senates 
of the Continent, or obtain supreme ascendency in the state. 
Just at this conjuncture James died. Charles the First 
succeeded to the throne. He had received from nature a far 

10 better understanding, a far stronger will, and a far keener and 
firmer temper than his father's. He had inherited his father's 
political theories, and was much more disposed than his 
father to carry them into practice. He was, like his father, 
a zealous episcopalian. He was, moreover, what his father 

15 had never been, a zealous Arminian, and, though no Papist, 
liked a Papist much better than a Puritan. It would be 
unjust to deny that Charles had some of the qualities of a 
good, and even of a great prince. He wrote and spoke, not, 
like his father, with the exactness of a professor, but after 

°,0 the fashion of intelligent and well educated gentlemen. 
His taste in literature and art was excellent, his manner 
dignified, though not gracious, his domestic life without 
blemish. Faithlessness was the chief cause of his disasters, 
and is the chief stain on his memory. He was, in truth, 

25 impelled by an incurable propensity to dark and crooked 
ways. It may seem strange that his conscience, which, on 
occasions of little moment, was sufficiently sensitive, should 
never have reproached him with this great vice. But there 
is reason to believe that he was perfidious, not only from 

30 constitution and from habit, but also on principle. He 
seems to have learned from the theologians whom he most 
esteemed that between him and his subjects there could be 
nothing of the nature of mutual contract; that he could 
not, even if he would, divest himself of his despotic 

35 authority ; and that, in every promise which he made, there 
was an implied reservation that such promise might be 
broken in case of necessity, and that of the necessity he 
was the sole judge. 



OPPOSITION IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 77 

And now began that hazardous game on which were staked 
the destinies of the English people. It was played on the side 
of the House of Commons with keenness, but with admirable 
dexterity, coolness, and perseverance. Great statesmen who 
looked far behind them and far before them were at the head 5 
of that assembly. They were resolved to place the King in 
such a situation that he must either conduct the adminis- 
tration in conformity with the wishes of his Parliament, or 
make outrageous attacks on the most sacred principles of 
the constitution. They accordingly doled out supplies to 10 
him very sparingly. He found that he must govern either 
in harmony with the House of Commons, or in defiance of 
all law. His choice was soon made. He dissolved his first 
Parliament, and levied taxes by his own authority. He 
convoked a second Parliament, and found it more intract- 15 
able than the first. He again resorted to the expedient of 
dissolution, raised fresh taxes without any show of legal 
right, and threw the chiefs of the opposition into prison. 
At the same time a new grievance, which the peculiar 
feelings and habits of the English nation made insupportably 20 
painful, and which seemed to all discerning men to be of 
fearful augury, excited general discontent and alarm. 
Companies of soldiers were billeted on the people; and 
martial law was, in some places, substituted for the ancient 
jurisprudence of the realm. 25 

The King called a third Parliament, and soon perceived 
that the opposition was stronger and fiercer than ever. He 
now determined on a change of tactics. Instead of opposing 
an inflexible resistance to the demands of the Commons, he, 
after much altercation and many evasions, agreed to a com- 30 
promise which, if he had faithfully adhered to it, would 
have averted a long series of calamities. The Parliament 
granted an ample supply. The King ratified, in the most 
solemn manner, that celebrated law, which is known by the 
name of the Petition of Right, and which is the second 35 
Great Charter of the liberties of England. By ratifying 
that law he bound himself never again to raise money 
without the consent of the Houses, never again to imprison 



78 

any person, except in due course of law, and never again to 
subject his people to the jurisdiction of courts martial. 

The day on which the royal sanction was, after many 
delays, solemnly given to this great Act, was a day of joy 
5 and hope. The Commons, who crowded the bar of the 
House of Lords, broke forth into loud acclamations as soon 
as the clerk had pronounced the ancient form of words by 
which our princes have, during many ages, signified their 
assent to the wishes of the Estates of the realm. Those 

10 acclamations were reechoed by the voice of the capital and 
of the nation ; but within three weeks it became manifest 
that Charles had no intention of observing the compact into 
which he had entered. The supply given by the repre- 
sentatives of the nation was collected. The promise by 

15 which that supply had been obtained was broken. A 
violent contest followed. The Parliament was dissolved 
with every mark of royal displeasure. Some of the most 
distinguished members were imprisoned ; and one of 
them, Sir John Eliot, after years of suffering, died in 

20 confinement. 

Charles, however, could not venture to raise, by his own 
authority, taxes sufficient for carrying on war. He accordingly 
hastened to make peace with his neighbours, and hence- 
forth gave his whole mind to British politics. 

25 Now commenced a new era. Many English Kings had 
occasionally committed unconstitutional acts : but none had 
ever systematically attempted to make himself a despot, and 
to reduce the Parliament to a nullity. Such was the end 
which Charles distinctly proposed to himself. From March 

30 1629 to April 1640, the Houses were not convoked. Never 
in our history had there been an interval of eleven years 
between Parliament and Parliament. Only once had there 
been an interval of even half that length. This fact alone 
is sufficient to refute those who represent Charles as having 

35 merely trodden in the footsteps of the Plantagenets and 
Tudors. 

It is proved, by the testimony of the King's most 
strenuous siiDporters, that, during this part of his reign, 



SIR THOMAS WENT WORTH. 79 

the provisions of the Petition of Right were violated by 
him, not occasionally, but constantly, and on system ; that 
a large part of the revenue was raised without any legal 
authority ; and that persons obnoxious to the government 
languished for years in prison, without being ever called 5 
upon to plead before any tribunal. 

For these things history must hold the King himself 
chiefly responsible. From the time of his third Parliament 
he was his own prime minister. Several persons, however, 
Avhose temper and talents were suited to his purposes, were 10 
at the head of different departments of the administration. 

Thomas Wentworth, successively created Lord Went- 
worth and Earl of Strafford, a man of great abilities, 
eloquence, and courage, but of a cruel and imperious 
nature, was the counsellor most trusted in political and 15 
military affairs. He had been one of the most distin- 
guished members of the opposition, and felt towards those 
whom he had deserted that peculiar malignity which has, 
in all ages, been characteristic of apostates. He perfectly 
understood the feelings, the resources, and the policy of 20 
the party to which he had lately belonged, and had formed 
a vast and deeply meditated scheme which very nearly 
confounded even the able tactics of the statesmen by 
whom the House of Commons had been directed. To 
this scheme, in his confidential correspondence, he gave 25 
the expressive name of Thorough. His object was to 
do in Engh-nd all, and more than all, that Richelieu was 
doing in France; to make Charles a monarch as absolute 
as any on the Continent; to put the estates and the 
personal liberty of the whole people at the disposal of 30 
the crown ; to deprive the courts of law of all independent 
authority, even in ordinary questions of civil right between 
man and man ; and to punish with merciless rigour all who 
murmured at the acts of the government, or who applied, 
even in the most decent and regular manner, to any tribunal 35 
for relief against those acts. 1 

1 The correspondence of Wentworth seems to me fully to bear out 
what I have said in the text. To transcribe all the passages which 



80 macaulay's -history. 

This was his end ; and he distinctly saw in what manner 
alone this end could be attained. There was, in truth, 
about all his notions a clearness, a coherence, a precision, 
which, if he had not been pursuing an object pernicious to 
5 his country and to his kind, would have justly entitled him 
to high admiration. He saw that there was one instrument, 
and only one, by which his vast and daring projects could 
be carried into execution. That instrument was a standing 
army. To the forming of such an army, therefore, he 

10 directed all the energy of his strong mind. In Ireland, 
where he was viceroy, he actually succeeded in establishing 
a military despotism, not only over the aboriginal popula- 
tion, but also over the English colonists, and was able to 
boast that, in that island, the King was as absolute as any 

15 prince in the whole world could be. 1 

The ecclesiastical administration was, in the meantime, 
principally directed by William Laud, archbishop of Canter- 
bury. Of all the prelates of the Anglican Church, Laud 
had departed farthest from the principles of the Refor- 

20 mation, and had drawn nearest to Rome. His theology 
was more remote that even that of the Dutch Arminians 
from the theology of the Calvinists. His passion for 
ceremonies, his reverence for holidays, vigils, and sacred 
places, his ill concealed dislike of the marriage of eccle- 

25 siastics, the ardent and not altogether disinterested zeal 
with which he asserted the claims of the clergy to the 
reverence of the laity, would have made him an object of 
aversion to the Puritans, even if he had used only legal and 
gentle means for the attainment of his ends. But his 

30 understanding was narrow, and his commerce with the 
world had been small. He was by nature rash, irritable, 

have led me to the conclusion at which I have arrived, would be 
impossible ; nor would it be easy to make a better selection than has 
already been made by Mr. Hallam. I may, however, direct the 
35 attention of the reader particularly to the very able paper which 
Wentworth drew up respecting the affairs of the Palatinate. The 
date is March 31, 1637. 

1 These are Wentworth's own words. See his letter to Laud, dated 
Dec. 16, 1634 



STAR CHAMBER AND HIGH COMMISSION. 81 

quick to feel for his own dignity, slow to sympathise with 
the sufferings of others, and prone to the error, common in 
superstitious men, of mistaking his own peevish and 
malignant moods for emotions of pious zeal. Under his 
direction every corner of the realm was subjected to a 5 
constant and minute inspection. Every little congregation 
of separatists was tracked out and broken up. Even the 
devotions of private families could not escape the vigilance 
of his spies. Such fear did his rigour inspire that the 
deadly hatred of the Church, which festered in innumerable 10 
bosoms, was generally disguised under an outward show of 
conformity. On the very eve of troubles, fatal to himself 
and to his order, the bishops of several extensive dioceses 
were able to report to him that not a single dissenter was to 
be found within their jurisdiction. 1 15 

The tribunals afforded no protection to the subject against 
the civil and ecclesiastical tyranny of that period. The 
judges of the common law, holding their situations during 
the pleasure of the King, were scandalously obsequious. 
Yet, obsequious as they were, they were less ready and less 20 
efficient instruments of arbitrary power than a class of 
courts, the memory of which is still, after the lapse of more 
than two centuries, held in deep abhorrence by the nation. 
Foremost among these courts in power and in infamy were 
the Star Chamber and the High Commission, the former 25 
a political, the latter a religious inquisition. Neither was 
a part of the old constitution of England. The Star 
Chamber had been remodelled, and the High Commission 
created, by the Tudors. The power which these boards 
had possessed before the accession of Charles had been 30 
extensive and formidable, but had been small indeed when 
compared with that which they now usurped. Guided 
chiefly by the violent spirit of the primate, and freed 
from the control of Parliament, they displayed a rapacity, 
a violence, a malignant energy, which had been unknown 35 
to any former age. The government was able, through 
their instrumentality, to fine, imprison, pillory, and mutilate 
1 See his report to Charles for the year 1639. 
Q 



82 macaulay's history. 

without restraint. A separate council, which sate at York, 
under the presidency of Wentworth, was armed, in defiance 
of laAV, by a pure act of prerogative, with almost boundless 
power over the northern counties. All these tribunals 

5 insulted and defied the authority of Westminster Hall, 
and daily committed excesses which the most distinguished 
Eoyalists have warmly condemned. We are informed by 
Clarendon that there was hardly a man of note in the 
realm who had not personal experience of the harshness 

10 and greediness of the Star Chamber, that the High Com- 
mission had so conducted itself that it had scarce a friend 
left in the kingdom, and that the tyranny of the Council 
of York had made the Great Charter a dead letter on the 
north of the Trent. 

15 The government of England was now, in all points but 
one, as despotic as that of France. But that one point was 
all important. There was still no standing army. There 
was, therefore, no security that the whole fabric of tyranny 
might not be subverted in a single day ; and, if taxes were 

20 imposed by the royal authority for the support of an army, 
it was probable that there would be an immediate and 
irresistible explosion. This was the difficulty which more 
than any other perplexed Wentworth. The Lord Keeper 
Finch, in concert with other lawyers who were employed by 

25 the government, recommended an expedient which was 
eagerly adopted. The ancient princes of England, as they 
called on the inhabitants of the counties near Scotland to 
arm and array themselves for the defence of the border, 
had sometimes called on the maritime counties to furnish 

80 ships for the defence of the coast. In the room of ships 
money had sometimes been accepted. This old practice 
it was now determined, after a long interval, not only 
to revive but to extend. Former princes had raised ship- 
money only in time of war : it was now exacted in a 

35 time of profound peace. Former princes, even in the 
most perilous wars, had raised shipmoney only along the 
coasts : it was now exacted from the inland shires. Former 
princes had raised shipmoney only for the maritime defence 



SHIPMONEY. 83 

of the country : it was now exacted by the admission 
of the Eoyalists themselves, with the object, not of main- 
taining a navy, but of furnishing the King with supplies 
which might be increased at his discretion to any amount, 
and expended at his discretion for any purpose. 5 

The whole nation was alarmed and incensed. John 
Hampden, an opulent and well-born gentleman of Bucking- 
hamshire, highly considered in his own neighbourhood, but 
as yet little known to the kingdom generally, had the courage 
to step forward, to confront the whole power of the govern- 10 
nient, and take on himself the cost and the risk of disputing 
the prerogative to which the King laid claim. The case was 
argued before the judges in the Exchequer Chamber. So 
strong were the arguments against the pretensions of the 
crown that, dependent and servile as the judges were, the 15 
majority against Hampden was the smallest possible. Still 
there was a majority. The interpreters of the law had pro- 
nounced that one great and productive tax might be imposed 
by the royal authority. "Wentworth justly observed that it 
was impossible to vindicate their judgment except by reasons 20 
directly leading to a conclusion which they had not ventured 
to draw. If money might legally be raised without the con- 
sent of Parliament for the support of a fleet, it was not easy 
to deny that money might, without consent of Parliament, be 
legally raised for the support of an army. 25 

The decision of the judges increased the irritation of the 
people. A century earlier, irritation less serious would have 
produced a general rising. But discontent did not now so 
readily as in an earlier age take the form of rebellion. The 
nation had been long steadily advancing in wealth and in 30 
civilisation. Since the great northern Earls took up arms 
against Elizabeth seventy years had elapsed, and during those 
seventy years there had been no civil war. Never, during 
the whole existence of the English nation, had so long a 
period passed without intestine hostilities Men had become 35 
accustomed to the pursuits of peaceful industry, and exasper- 
ated as they were, hesitated long before they drew the sword. 

This was the conjuncture at which the liberties of the 



84 macaulay's history. 

nation were in the greatest peril. The opponents of the 
government began to despair of the destiny of their country ; 
and many looked to the American wilderness as the only 
asylum in which they could enjoy civil and spiritual freedom. 
5 There a few resolute Puritans, who, in the cause of their re- 
ligion, feared neither the rage of the ocean nor the hardships 
of uncivilised life, neither the fangs of the savage beasts nor 
the tomahawks of savage men, had built, amidst the primeval 
forest, villages which are now great and opulent cities, but 

10 which have, through every change, retained some trace of the 
character derived from their founders. The government re- 
garded these infant colonies with aversion, and attempted 
violently to stop the stream of emigration, but could not pre- 
vent the population of New England from being largely re- 

15 cruited by stouthearted and Godfearing men from every part 
of the old England. And now Wentworth exulted in the 
near prospect of Thorough. A few years might probably 
suffice for the execution of his great design If strict 
economy were observed, if {ill collision with foreign powers 

29 were carefully avoided, the debts of the crown would be 
cleared off: there would be funds available for the support 
of a large military force ; and that force would soon break 
the refractory spirit of the nation. 

At this crisis an act of insane bigotry suddenly changed 
25 the whole face of public affairs. Had the King been 
wise, he would have pursued a cautious and soothing- 
policy towards Scotland till he was master in the South. 
For Scotland was of all his kingdoms that in which 
there was the greatest risk that a spark might produce 

30 a flame, and that a flame might become a conflagration. 
Constitutional opposition, indeed, such as he had en- 
countered at Westminster, he had not to apprehend at 
Edinburgh. The Parliament of his northern kingdom was a 
very different body from that which bore the same name in 

35 England. It was ill constituted ; it was little considered ; 
and it had never imposed any serious restraint on any of 
his predecessors. The three Estates sate in one house. The 
commissioners of the burghs were considered merely as 



RESISTANCE TO THE LITURGY IN SCOTLAND. 85 

retainers of the great nobles. No act could be introduced 
till it had been approved by the Lords of Articles, a 
committee which was really, though not in form, nominated 
by the crown. But, though the Scottish Parliament was 
obsequious, the Scottish people had always been singularly 5 
turbulent and ungovernable. They had butchered their 
first James in his bedchamber : they had repeatedly arrayed 
themselves in arms against James the Second: they had 
slain James the Third on the field of battle : their dis- 
obedience had broken the heart of James the Fifth : they 10 
had deposed and imprisoned Mary : they had led her son 
captive ; and their temper was still as intractable as ever. 
Their habits were rude and martial. All along the southern 
border, and all along the line between the highlands and the 
lowlands, raged an incessant predatory war. In every part 15 
of the country men were accustomed to redress their wrongs 
by the strong hand. Whatever loyalty the nation had 
anciently felt to the Stuarts had cooled during their long 
absence. The supreme influence over the public mind was 
divided between two classes of malecontents, the lords of 20 
the soil and the preachers; lords animated by the same 
spirit which had often impelled the old Douglasses to 
withstand the royal house, and preachers who had inherited 
the republican opinions and the unconquerable spirit of 
Knox. Both the national and religious feelings of the popu- 25 
lation had been wounded. All orders of men complained that 
their country, that country which had, with so much glory, 
defended her independence against the ablest and bravest 
Plantagenets, had, through the instrumentality of her native 
princes, become in effect, though not in name, a province of 30 
England. In no part of Europe had the Calvinistic doctrine 
and discipline taken so strong a hold on the public mind. 
The Church of Rome was regarded by the great body of the 
people with a hatred which might justly be called ferocious ; 
and the Church of England, winch seemed to be every day 35 
becoming more and more like the Church of Rome, was an 
object of scarcely less aversion. 

The government had long wished to extend the Anglican 



86 macaulay's history. 

system over the whole island, and had already, with this view, 
made several changes highly distasteful to every Presbyterian. 
One innovation, however, the most hazardous of all, because 
it was directly cognisable by the senses of the common 
5 people, had not yet been attempted. The public worship of 
God was still conducted in the manner acceptable to the 
nation. Now, however, Charles and Laud determined to 
force on the Scots the English liturgy, or rather a liturgy 
which, wherever it differed from that of England, differed, 

10 in the judgment of all rigid Protestants, for the worse. 

To this step, taken in the mere wantonness of tyranny, 
and in criminal ignorance or more criminal contempt of public 
feeling, our country owes her freedom. The first performance 
of the foreign ceremonies produced a riot. The riot rapidly 

15 became a revolution. Ambition, patriotism, fanaticism, were 
mingled in one headlong torrent. The whole nation was 
in arms. The power of England was indeed, as appeared 
some years later, sufficient to coerce Scotland : but a large 
part of the English people sympathised with the religious 

20 feelings of the insurgents ; and many Englishmen who had 
no scruple about antiphonies and genuflexions, altars and 
surplices, saw with pleasure the progress of a rebellion which 
seemed likely to confound the arbitrary projects of the 
court, and to make the calling of a Parliament necessary. 

25 Eor the senseless freak which had produced these effects 
Wentworth is not responsible. l It had, in fact, thrown all 
his plans into confusion. To counsel submission, however, 
was not in his nature. An attempt was made to put down 
the insurrection by the sword: but the King's military 

30 means and military talents were unequal to the task. To 
impose fresh taxes on England in defiance of law would, at 
this conjuncture, have been madness. No resource was left 
but a Parliament; and in the spring of 1640 a Parliament 
was convoked. 

85 The nation had been put into good humour by the 
prospect of seeing constitutional government restored, and 

1 See his letter to the Earl of Northumberland, dated July 30 t 
1633. 



A PARLIAMENT CALLED AND DISSOLVED. 87 

grievances redressed. The new House of Commons was 
more temperate and more respectful to the throne than 
any which had sate since the death of Elizabeth. The 
moderation of this assembly has been highly extolled 
by the most distinguished Royalists, and seems to have 5 
caused no small vexation and disappointment to the chiefs of 
the opposition : but it was the uniform practice of Charles, 
a practice equally impolitic and ungenerous, to refuse all 
compliance with the desires of his people, till those desires 
were expressed in a menacing tone. As soon as the Commons 10 
showed a disposition to take into consideration the grievances 
under which the country had suffered during eleven years, 
the King dissolved the Parliament with every mark of 
displeasure. 

Between the dissolution of this short-lived assembly and 15 
the meeting of that ever memorable body known by the 
name of the Long Parliament, intervened a few months, 
during which the yoke was pressed down more severely 
than ever on the nation, while the spirit of the nation rose 
up more angrily than ever against the yoke. Members of 20 
the House of Commons were questioned by the Privy 
Council touching their parliamentary conduct, and thrown 
into prison for refusing to reply. Shipmoney was levied 
with increased rigour. The Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs of 
London were threatened with imprisonment for remissness 25 
in collecting the payments. Soldiers were enlisted by force. 
Money for their support was exacted from their counties. 
Torture, which had always been illegal, and which had 
recently been declared illegal even by the servile judges of 
that age, was inflicted for the last time in England in the 30 
month of May, 1640. 

Everything now depended on the event of the King's 
military operations against the Scots. Among his troops 
there was little of that feeling which separates professional 
soldiers from the mass of a nation, and attaches them to 35 
their leaders. His army, composed for the most part of 
recruits, who regretted the plough from which they had 
been violently taken, and who were imbued with the 



88 macaulay's history. 

religious and political sentiments then prevalent throughout 
the country, was more formidable to himself than to the 
enemy. The Scots, encouraged by the heads of the English 
opposition, and feebly resisted by the English forces, 
5 marched across the Tweed and the Tyne, and encamped 
on the borders of Yorkshire. And now the murmurs of 
discontent swelled into an uproar by which all spirits save 
one were overawed. But the voice of Strafford was still for 
Thorough ; and he, even in this extremity, showed a nature 

10 so cruel and despotic, that his own pikemen were ready 
to tear him in pieces. 

There was yet one last expedient which, as the King 
nattered himself, might save him from the misery of facing 
another House of Commons. To the House of Lords he was 

15 less averse. The bishops were devoted to him ; and, 
though the temporal peers were generally dissatisfied with 
his administration, they were, as a class, so deeply interested 
in the maintenance of order, and in the stability of ancient 
institutions, that they were not likely to call for extensive 

20 reforms. Departing from the uninterrupted practice of 
centuries, he called a Great Council consisting of Lords 
alone. But the Lords were too prudent to assume the 
unconstitutional functions with which he wished to invest 
them. Without money, without credit, without authority 

25 even in his own camp, he yielded to the pressure of 
necessity. The Houses were convoked; and the elections 
proved that, since the spring, the distrust and hatred with 
which the government was regarded had made fearful 
progress. 

30 In November 1640 met that renowned Parliament which, 

in spite of many errors and disasters, is justly entitled to 

the reverence and gratitude of all who, in any part of 

the world, enjoy the blessings of constitutional government. 

During the year which followed, no very important division 

35 of opinion appeared in the Houses. The civil and ecclesi- 
astical administration had, through a period of near twelve 
years, been so oppressive and so unconstitutional that even 
those classes of which the inclinations are generally on the 



THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 89 

side of order and authority were eager to promote popular 
reforms, and to bring the instruments of tyranny to justice. 
It was enacted that no interval of more than three years 
should ever elapse between Parliament and Parliament, 
and that, if writs under the Great Seal were not issued 5 
at the proper time, the returning officers should, without 
such writs, call the constituent bodies together for the choice of 
representatives. The Star Chamber, the High Commission, 
the Council of York were swept away. Men who, after 
suffering cruel mutilations, had been confined in remote 10 
dungeons, regained their liberty. On the chief ministers of 
the crown the vengeance of the nation was unsparingly 
wreaked. The Lord Keeper, the Primate, the Lord Lieuten- 
ant were impeached. Finch saved himself by flight. Laud 
was flung into the Tower. Strafford was put to death by act 15 
of attainder. On the day on which this act passed, the King 
gave his assent to a law by which he bound himself not to 
adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve the existing Parliament 
without its own consent. 

After ten months of assiduous toil, the Houses, in 20 
September 1641, adjourned for a short vacation; and the 
King visited Scotland. He with difficulty pacified that 
kingdom by consenting not only to relinquish his plans of 
ecclesiastical reform, but even to pass, with a very bad grace, 
an act declaring that episcopacy was contrary to the word of 25 
God. 

The recess of the English Parliament lasted six weeks. 
The day on which the Houses met again is one of the most 
remarkable epochs in our history. From that day dates 
the corporate existence of the two great parties which 30 
have ever since alternately governed the country. In one 
sense, indeed, the distinction which then became obvious 
had always existed, and always must exist. For it has its 
origin in diversities of temper, of understanding, and of 
interest, which are found in all societies, and which will be 35 
found till the human mind ceases to be drawn in opposite 
directions by the charm of habit and by the charm of novelty. 
Not only in politics, but in literature, in art, in science, in 



90 MACAULAY'S HISTORY. 

surgery and mechanics, in navigation and agriculture, nay, 
even in mathematics, we find this distinction. Everywhere 
there is a class of men who cling with fondness to whatever 
is ancient, and who, even when convinced by overpowering 
5 reasons that innovation would be beneficial, consent to it with 
many misgivings and forebodings. We find also everywhere 
another class of men, sanguine in hoj3e, bold in speculation, 
always pressing forward, quick to discern the imperfections of 
whatever exists, disposed to think lightly of the risks and 

10 inconveniences which attend improvements, and disposed to 
give every change credit for being an improvement. In the 
sentiments of both classes there is something to approve. 
But of both the best specimens will be found not far from 
the common frontier. The extreme section of one class 

15 consists of bigoted dotards : the extreme section of the other 
consists of shallow and reckless empirics. 

There can be no doubt that in our very first Parliaments 
might have been discerned a body of members anxious to 
preserve, and a body eager to reform. But, while the sessions 

20 of the legislature were short, these bodies did not take definite 
and permanent forms, array themselves under recognised 
leaders, or assume distinguishing names, badges, and war 
cries. During the first months of the Long Parliament, the 
indignation excited by many years of lawless oppression was 

25 so strong and general that the House of Commons acted as 
one man. Abuse after abuse disappeared without a struggle. 
If a small minority of the representative body wished to 
retain the Star Chamber and the High Commission, that 
minority, overawed by the enthusiasm and by the numerical 

30 superiority of the reformers, contented itself with secretly 
regretting institutions which could not, with any hope of 
success, be openly defended. At a later period the Royalists 
found it convenient to antedate the separation between 
themselves and their opponents, and to attribute the Act 

35 which restrained the King from dissolving or proroguing the 
Parliament, the Triennial Act, the impeachment of the 
ministers, and the attainder of Strafford, to the faction which 
afterwards made war on the King. But no artifice could be 



APPEARANCE OF THE TWO ENGLISH PARTIES. 91 

more disingenuous. Every one of those strong measures was 
actively promoted by the men who were afterwards foremost 
among the Cavaliers. No republican spoke of the long mis- 
government of Charles more severely than Colepepper. The 
most remarkable speech in favour of the Triennial Bill was 5 
made by Digby. The impeachment of the Lord Keeper was 
moved by Falkland. The demand that the Lord Lieutenant 
should be kept close prisoner was made at the bar of the 
Lords by Hyde. Not till the law attainting Stratford was 
proposed did the signs of serious disunion become visible. 10 
Even against that law, a law which nothing but extreme 
necessity could justify, only about sixty members of the 
House of Commons voted. It is certain that Hyde was not 
in the minority, and that Falkland not only voted with the 
majority, but spoke strongly for the bill. Even the few who 15 
entertained a scruple about inflicting death by a retrospective 
enactment thought it necessary to express the utmost 
abhorrence of Strafford's character and administration. 

But under this apparent concord a great schism was latent; 
and when, in October 1641, the Parliament reassembled after 20 
a short recess, two hostile parties, essentially the same with 
those which, under different names, have ever since con- 
tended, and are still contending, for the direction of public 
affairs, appeared confronting each other. During some years 
they were designated as Cavaliers and Roundheads. They 25 
were subsequently called Tories and Whigs ; nor does it 
seem that these appellations are likely soon to become 
obsolete. 

It would not be difficult to compose a lampoon or a 
panegyric on either of these renowned factions. For no man 30 
not utterly destitute of judgment and candour will deny that 
there are many deep stains on the fame of the party to which 
he belongs, or that the party to which he is opposed may 
justly boast of many illustrious names, of many heroic actions, 
and of many great services rendered to the state. The truth 35 
is that, though both parties have often seriously erred, 
England could have spared neither. If, in her institutions, 
freedom and order, the advantages arising ^from innovation 



92 macaulay's history. 

and the advantages arising from prescription, have been com- 
bined to an extent elsewhere unknown, we may attribute 
this happy peculiarity to the strenuous conflicts and alternate 
victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen, a confederacy 
5 zealous for authority and antiquity, and a confederacy zealous 
for liberty and progress. 

It ought to be remembered that the difference between the 
two great sections of English politicians has always been a 
difference rather of degree than of principle. There wore 

10 certain limits on the right and on the left, which were very 
rarely overstepped. A few enthusiasts on one side were ready 
to lay all our laws and franchises at the feet of our Kings. 
A few enthusiasts on the other side were bent on pursuing, 
through endless civil troubles, their darling phantom of a 

15 republic. But the great majority of those who fought for the 
crown were averse to despotism ; and the great majority of the 
champions of popular rights were averse to anarchy. Twice, 
in the course of the seventeenth century, the two parties 
suspended their dissensions, and united their strength in 

20 a common cause. Their first coalition restored hereditary 
monarchy. Their second coalition rescued constitutional 
freedom. 

It is also to be noted that these two parties have never 
been the whole nation, nay, that they have never, taken 

25 together, made up a majority of the nation. Between them 
has always been a great mass, which has not steadfastly 
adhered to either, wdiich has sometimes remained inertly 
neutral, and which has sometimes oscillated to and fro. 
That mass has more than once passed in a few years from 

30 one extreme to the other, and back again. Sometimes it has 
changed sides, merely because it was tired of supporting the 
same men, sometimes because it was dismayed by its own 
excesses, sometimes because it had expected impossibilities, 
and had been disappointed. But, whenever it has leaned 

3"j with its whole weight in either direction, that weight has, 
for the time, been irresistible. 

When the rival parties first appeared in a distinct form, 
they seemed to be not unequally matched. On the side of 



APPEARANCE OF THE TWO ENGLISH PARTIES. 0.°, 

the government was a large majority of the nobles, and of 
those opulent and well descended gentlemen to whom 
nothing was wanting of nobility but the name. These, 
with the dependents whose support they could command, 
were no small power in the state. On the same side were 5 
the great body of the clergy, both the Universities, and all 
those laymen who were strongly attached to episcopal 
government and to the Anglican ritual. These respectable 
classes found themselves in the company of some allies 
much less decorous than themselves. The Puritan austerity 10 
drove to the King's faction all who made pleasure their 
business, who affected gallantry, splendour of dress, or taste 
in the lighter arts. With these went all who live by amusing 
the leisure of others, from the painter and the comic poet, 
down to the ropedancer and the merry andrew. For these 15 
artists well knew that they might thrive under a superb and 
luxurious despotism, but must starve under the rigid rule of 
the precisians. In the same interest were the Roman 
Catholics to a man. The Queen, a daughter of France, was 
of their own faith. Her husband was known to be strongly 20 
attached to her, and not a little in awe of her. Though 
undoubtedly a Protestant on conviction, he regarded the 
professors of the old religion with no ill will, and would 
gladly have granted them a much larger toleration than he 
was disposed to concede to the Presbyterians. If the 25 
opposition obtained the mastery, it was probable that the 
sanguinary laws enacted against Papists, in the reign of 
Elizabeth, would be severely enforced. The Roman 
Catholics were therefore induced by the strongest motives 
to espouse the cause of the court. They in general acted 30 
with a caution which brought on them the reproach of 
cowardice and lukewarmness : but it is probable that, in 
maintaining great reserve, they consulted the King's interest 
as well as their own. It was not for his service that they 
should be conspicuous among his friends. 35 

The main strength of the opposition lay among the small 
freeholders in the country, and among the merchants and 
shopkeepers of the towns. But these were headed by a 



94 macaulay's history. 

formidable minority of the aristocracy, a minority which 
included the rich and powerful Earls of Northumberland, 
Bedford, Warwick, Stamford, and Essex, and several other 
lords of great wealth and influence. In the same ranks 
5 was found the whole body of Protestant Nonconformists, 
and most of those members of the Established Church who 
still adhered to the Calvinistic opinions which, forty years 
before, had been generally held by the prelates and clergy. 
The municipal corporations took, with few exceptions, the 

10 same side. In the House of Commons the opposition pre- 
ponderated, but not very decidedly. 

Neither party wanted strong arguments for the course 
which it was disposed to take. The reasonings of the most 
enlightened Royalists may be summed up thus : — " It is 

15 true that great abuses have existed ; but they have been re- 
dressed. It is true that precious rights have been invaded ; 
but they have been vindicated and surrounded with new 
securities. The sittings of the Estates of the realm have 
been, in defiance of all precedent and of the spirit of the 

20 constitution, intermitted during eleven years ; but it has 
now been provided that henceforth three years shall never 
elapse without a Parliament. The Star Chamber, the High 
Commission, the Council of York, oppressed and plundered 
us; but those hateful courts have now ceased to exist. 

25 The Lord Lieutenant aimed at establishing military des- 
potism ; but he has answered for his treason with his head. 
The Primate tainted our worship with Popish rites, and 
punished our scruples with Popish cruelty; but he is 
awaiting in the Tower the judgment of his peers. The 

80 Lord Keeper sanctioned a plan by which the property of 
every man in England was placed at the mercy of the 
Crown ; but he has been disgraced, ruined, and compelled to 
take refuge in a foreign land. The ministers of tyranny 
have expiated their crimes. The victims of tyranny have 

35 been compensated for their sufferings. It would therefore 
be most unwise to persevere further in that course which 
was justifiable and necessary when we first met, after a long 
interval, and found the whole administration one mass of 



THE IRISH REBELLION. 95 

abuses. It is time to take heed that we do not so pursue our 
victory over despotism as to run into anarchy. It was not 
in our power to overturn the bad institutions which lately 
afflicted our country, without shocks which have loosened 
the foundations of government. Now that those institu- 5 
tions have fallen we must hasten to prop the edifice which 
it was lately our duty to batter. Henceforth it will be our 
wisdom to look with jealousy on schemes of innovation, 
and to guard from encroachment all the prerogatives with 
which the law has, for the public good, armed the 10 
sovereign." 

Such were the views of those men of whom the excellent 
Falkland may be regarded as the leader. It was contended 
on the other side with not less force, by men of not less 
ability and virtue, that the safety which the liberties of the 15 
English people enjoyed was rather apparent than real, and 
that the arbitrary projects of the court would be resumed as 
soon as the vigilance of the Commons was relaxed. True it 
was — such was the reasoning of Pym, of Hollis, and of 
Hampden — that many good laws had been passed : but, if 20 
good laws had been sufficient to restrain the King, his 
subjects would have had little reason ever to complain of 
his administration. The recent statutes were surely not of 
more authority than the Great Charter or the Petition of 
Right. Yet neither the Great Charter, hallowed by the 25 
veneration of four centuries, nor the Petition of Right, 
sanctioned, after mature reflection, and for valuable con- 
sideration, by Charles himself, had been found effectual for 
the protection of the people. If once the check of fear 
were withdrawn, if once the spirit of opposition were 30 
suffered to slumber, all the securities for English freedom 
resolved themselves into a single one, the royal word ; and 
it had been proved by a long and severe experience that the 
royal word could not be trusted. 

The two parties were still regarding each other with cautious 35 
hostility, and had not yet measured their strength, when 
news arrived which inflamed the passions and confirmed thp 
opinions of both. The great chieftains of Ulster, who, a; 



96 MAC AULA Y'S HISTORY. 

the time of the accession of James, had, after a long 
struggle, submitted to the royal authority, had not long 
brooked the humiliation of dependence. They had con- 
spired against the English government, and had been 

5 attainted of treason. Their immense domains had been for- 
feited to the crown, and soon had been peopled by thousands 
of English and Scotch emigrants. The new settlers were, 
in civilisation and intelligence, far superior to the native 
population, and sometimes abused their superiority. The 

10 animosity produced by difference of race was increased by 
difference of religion. Under the iron rule of Wentworth, 
scarcely a murmur was heard : but, when that strong- 
pressure was withdrawn, when Scotland had set the ex- 
ample of successful resistance, when England was distracted 

15 by internal quarrels, the smothered rage of the Irish broke 
forth into acts of fearful violence. On a sudden, the 
aboriginal population rose on the colonists. A war, to which 
national and theological hatred gave a character of peculiar 
ferocity, desolated Ulster, and spread to the neighbouring 

20 provinces. The castle of Dublin was scarcely thought 
secure. Every post brought to London exaggerated 
accounts of outrages which, without any exaggeration, were 
sufficient to move pity and horror. These evil tidings 
roused to the height the zeal of both the great parties which 

25 were marshalled against each other at Westminster. The 
Royalists maintained that it was the first duty of every good 
Englishman and Protestant, at such a crisis, to strengthen 
the hands of the sovereign. To the or position it seemed 
that there were now stronger reasons than ever for thwarting 

30 and restraining him. That the commonwealth was in danger 
was undoubtedly a good reason for giving large powers to 
a trustworthy magistrate : but it was a good reason for 
taking away powers from a magistrate who was at heart a 
public enemy. To raise a great army had always been the 

35 King's first object. A great army must now be raised. It 
was to be feared that, unless some new securities were 
devised, the forces levied for the reduction of Ireland would 
be employed against the liberties of England. JSTor was 



THE REMONSTRANCE. 97 

this all. A horrible suspicion, unjust indeed, but not 
altogether unnatural, had arisen in many minds. The 
Queen was an avowed Roman Catholic : the King was not 
regarded by the Puritans, whom he had mercilessly per- 
secuted, as a sincere Protestant ; and so notorious was his 5 
duplicity, that there was no treachery of which his subjects 
might not, with some show of reason, believe him capable. 
It was soon whispered that the rebellion of the Roman 
Catholics of Ulster was part of a vast work of darkness 
which had been planned at Whitehall. 10 

After soon weeks of prelude, the first great parliamentary 
conflict between the parties, which have ever since con- 
tended, and are still contending, for the government of the 
nation, took place on the twenty-second of November 1641. 
It was moved by the opposition, that the House of lo 
Commons should present to the King a remonstrance, 
enumerating the faults of his administration from the time 
of his accession, and expressing the distrust with which his 
policy was still regarded by his people. That assembly, 
which a few months before had been unanimous in calling 20 
for the reform of abuses, was now divided into two fierce 
and eager factions of nearly equal strength. After a hot 
debate of many hours, the remonstrance was carried by only 
eleven votes. 

The result of this struggle was highly favourable to the 25 
conservative party. It could not be doubted that only some 
great indiscretion could prevent them from shortly obtaining 
the predominance in the Lower House. The Upper House 
was already their own. Nothing was wanting to ensure 
their success, but that the King should, in all his conduct, 30 
show respect for the laws and scrupulous good faith towards 
his subjects. 

His first measures promised well. He had, it seemed, at last 
discovered that an entire change of system was necessary, 
and had wisely made up his mind to what could no longer 3o 
be avoided. He declared his determination to govern in 
harmony with the Commons, and, for that end, to call to his 
councils men in whose talents and character the Commons 



98 MAC AULA Y'S HISTORY. 

might place confidence. Nor was the selection ill made. 
Falkland, Hyde, and Colepepper, all three distinguished by 
the part which they had taken in reforming abuses and in 
punishing evil ministers, were invited to become the con- 
5 fidential advisers of the Crown, and were solemnly assured 
by Charles that he would take no step in any way affecting 
the Lower House of Parliament without their privity. 

Had he kept this promise, it cannot be doubted that 
the reaction which was already in progress would very soon 

10 have become quite as strong as the most respectable Royalists 
would have desired. Already the violent members of the 
opposition had begun to despair of the fortunes of their 
party, to tremble for their own safety, and to talk of selling 
their estates and emigrating to America. That the fair 

15 prospects which had begun to open before the King were 
suddenly overcast, that his life was darkened by adversity, 
and at length shortened by violence, is to be attributed to 
his own faithlessness and contempt of law. 

The truth seems to be that he detested both the parties 

20 into which the House of Commons was divided : nor is this 
strange ; for in both those parties the love of liberty and the 
love of order were mingled, though in different proportions. 
The advisers whom necessity had compelled him to call 
round him were by no means men after his own heart. 

25 They had joined in condemning his tyranny, in abridging his 
power, and in punishing his instruments. They were now 
indeed prepared to defend in a strictly legal way his strictly 
legal prerogative ; but they would have recoiled with horror 
from the thought of reviving Wentworth's projects of 

30 Thorough. They were, therefore, in the King's opinion, 
traitors, who differed only in the degree of their seditious 
malignity from Pym and Hampden. 

He accordingly, a few days after he had promised the 
chiefs of the constitutional Royalists that no step of import- 

35 ance should be taken without their knowledge, formed a 
resolution the most momentous of his whole life, carefully 
concealed that resolution from them, and executed it in a 
manner which overwhelmed them with shame and dismay. 



IMPEACHMENT OF THE FIVE MEMBERS. 99 

He sent the Attorney General to impeach Pym, Hollis, 
Hampden, and other members of the House of Commons 
of high treason at the bar of the House of Lords. Not 
content with this flagrant violation of the Great Charter and 
of the uninterrupted practice of centuries, he went in person, 5 
accompanied by armed men, to seize the leaders of the 
opposition within the walls of Parliament. 

The attempt failed. The accused members had left the 
House a short time before Charles entered it. A sudden and 
violent revulsion of feeling, both in the Parliament and in 10 
the country, followed. The most favourable view that has 
ever been taken of the King's conduct on this occasion by his 
most partial advocates is that he had weakly suffered himself 
to be hurried into a gross indiscretion by the evil counsels of 
his wife and of his courtiers. But the general voice loudly 15 
charged him with far deeper guilt. At the very moment at 
which his subjects, after a long estrangement produced by 
his maladministration, were returning to him with feelings of 
confidence and affection, he had aimed a deadly blow at all 
their dearest rights, at the privileges of Parliament, at the 20 
very principle of trial by jury. He had shown that he con- 
sidered opposition to his arbitrary designs as a crime to be 
expiated only by blood. He had broken faith, not only 
with his Great Council and with his people, but with his 
own adherents. He had done what, but for an unforeseen 25 
accident, would probably have produced a bloody conflict 
round the Speaker's chair. Those who had the chief sway 
in the Lower House now felt that not only their power and 
popularity, but their lands and their necks, were staked on 
the event of the struggle in which they were engaged. The 30 
flagging zeal of the party opposed to the court revived in an 
instant. During the night which followed the outrage the 
whole city of London was in arms. In a few hours the 
roads leading to the capital were covered with multitudes of 
yeomen spurring hard to Westminster with the badges of 35 
the parliamentary cause in their hats. In the House of 
Commons the opposition became at once irresistible, and 
earned, by more than two votes to one ? resolutions of 



100 MAC AULA Y'S HISTORY. 

unprecedented violence. Strong bodies of the trainbands, 
regularly relieved, mounted guard round Westminster Hall. 
The gates of the King's palace were daily besieged by a 
furious multitude whose taunts and execrations were heard 
5 even in the presence chamber, and who could scarcely be 
kept out of the royal apartments by the gentlemen of the 
household. Had Charles remained much longer in his stormy 
capital, it is probable that the Commons would have found 
a plea for making him, under outward forms of respect, a 

10 state prisoner. 

He quitted London, never to return till the day of a 
terrible and memorable reckoning had arrived. A negotiation 
began which occupied many months. Accusations and 
recriminations passed backward and forward between the 

15 contending parties. All accommodation had become im- 
possible. The sure punishment which waits on habitual 
perfidy had at length overtaken the King. It was to no 
purpose that he now pawned his royal word, and invoked 
heaven to witness the sincerity of his professions. The 

20 distrust with which his adversaries regarded him was not to 
be removed by oaths or treaties. They were convinced that 
they could be safe only when he was utterly helpless. Their 
demand, therefore, was, that he should surrender, not only 
those prerogatives which he had usurped in violation of 

25 ancient laws and of his own recent promises, but also other 
prerogatives which the English Kings had always possessed, 
and continue to possess at the present day. No minister 
must be appointed, no peer created, without the consent of 
the Houses. Above all, the sovereign must resign that 

30 supreme military authority which, from time beyond all 
memory, had appertained to the regal office. 

That Charles would comply with such demands while he 
had any means of resistance was not to be expected. Yet 
it will be difficult to show that the Houses could safely 

35 have exacted less. They were truly in a most embarrassing 
position. The great majority of the nation was firmly 
attached to hereditary monarchy. Those who held republican 
opinions were as yet few, and did not venture to speak out. It 



DEMANDS OF THE COMMONS. 101 

was therefore impossible to abolish kingly government. Yet 
it was plain that no confidence could be placed in the King. 
It would have been absurd in those who knew, by recent 
proof, that he was bent on destroying them, to content them- 
selves with presenting to hi in another Petition of Right, and 5 
receiving from him fresh promises similar to those which he 
had repeatedly made and broken. Nothing but the want of 
an army had prevented him from entirely subverting the old 
constitution of the realm. It was now necessary to levy a 
great regular army for the conquest of Ireland j and it would 10 
therefore have been mere insanity to leave him in possession 
of that plenitude of military authority which his ancestors 
had enjoyed. 

When a country is in the situation in which England then 
was, when the kingly office is regarded with love and 15 
veneration, but the person who fills that office is hated and 
distrusted, it should seem that the course which ought to be 
taken is obvious. The dignity of the office should be pre- 
served : the person should be discarded. Thus our ancestors 
acted in 1399 and in 1689. Had there been, in 1642, any 20 
man occupying a position similar to that which Henry of 
Lancaster occupied at the time of the deposition of Richard 
the Second, and which William of Orange occupied at the 
time of the deposition of James the Second, it is probable 
that the Houses would have changed the dynasty, and would 25 
have made no formal change in the constitution. The new 
king, called to the throne by their choice, and dependent 
on their support, would have been under the necessity of 
governing in conformity with their wishes and opinions. 
But there was no prince of the blood royal in the parliamentary 30 
party ; and, though that party contained many men of high 
rank and many men of eminent ability, there was none who 
towered so conspicuously above the rest that he could be 
proposed as a candidate for the crown. As there was to be 
a king, and as no new king could be found, it was necessary 35 
to leave- the regal title to Charles. Only one course, therefore, 
was left : and that was to disjoin the regal title from the 
regal prerogatives. 



102 macaulay's history. 

The change which the Houses proposed to make in our 
institutions, though it seems exorbitant, when distinctly set 
forth and digested into articles of capitulation, really amounts 
to little more than the change which, in the next generation, 
5 was effected by the Revolution. It is true that, at the 
Revolution, the sovereign was not deprived by law of the 
power of naming his ministers : but it is equally true that, 
since the Revolution, no minister has been able to retain 
office six months in opposition to the sense of the House of 

10 Commons. It is true that the sovereign still possesses the 
power of creating peers, and the more important power of 
the sword : but it is equally true that in the exercise of 
these powers the sovereign has, ever since the Revolution, 
been guided by advisers who possess the confidence of the 

15 representatives of the nation. In fact, the leaders of the 
Roundhead party in 1642, and the statesmen who, about 
half a century later, effected the Revolution, had exactly 
the same object in view. That object w T as to terminate the 
contest between the Crown and the Parliament, by giving 

20 to the Parliament a supreme control over the executive 
administration. The statesmen of the Revolution effected 
this indirectly by changing the dynasty. The Roundheads 
of 1642, being unable to change the dynasty, were compelled 
to take a direct course towards their end. 

25 We cannot, however, wonder that the demands of the 
opposition, importing as they did a complete and formal 
transfer to the Parliament of powers which had always 
belonged to the Crown, should have shocked that great 
party of which the characteristics are respect for constituted 

30 authority and dread of violent innovation. That party had 
recently been in hopes of obtaining by peaceable means the 
ascendency in the House of Commons ; but every such hope 
had been blighted. The duplicity of Charles had made his 
old enemies irreconcileable, had driven back into the ranks 

35 of the disaffected a crowd of moderate men who were in 
the very act of coming over to his side, and had so cruelly 
mortified his best friends that they had for a time stood 
a J oof in silent shame and resentment. Now, however, the 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL AVAR. 103 

constitutional Royalists were forced to make their choice 
between two dangers ; and they thought it their duty rather 
to rally round a prince whose past conduct they condemned, 
and whose word inspired them with little confidence, than 
to suffer the regal office to be degraded, and the polity of 5 
the realm to be entirely remodelled. With such feelings, 
many men whose virtues and abilities would have done 
honour to any cause ranged themselves on the side of the 
King. 

In August 1642 the sword was at length drawn; and 10 
soon, in almost every shire of the kingdom, two hostile 
factions appeared in arms against each other. It is not 
easy to say which of the contending parties was at first the 
more formidable. The Houses commanded London and the 
counties round London, the fleet, the navigation of the 15 
Thames, and most of the large towns and seaports. They 
had at their disposal almost all the military stores of the 
kingdom, and were able to raise duties, both on goods 
imported from foreign countries, and on some important 
products of domestic industry. The King was ill provided 20 
with artillery and ammunition. The taxes which he laid 
on the rural districts occupied by his troops produced, it is 
probable, a sum far less than that which the Parliament 
drew from the city of London alone. He relied, indeed, 
chiefly, for pecuniary aid, on the munificence of his opulent 25 
adherents. Many of these mortgaged their land, pawned 
their jewels, and broke up their silver chargers and christen- 
ing bowls, in order to assist him. But experience has fully 
proved that the voluntary liberality of individuals, even in 
times of the greatest excitement, is a poor financial resource 30 
when compared with severe and methodical taxation, which 
presses on the willing and unwilling alike. 

Charles, however, had one advantage, which, if he had 
used it well, would have more than compensated for the 
want of stores and money, and which, notwithstanding his 35 
mismanagement, gave him, during some months, a superi- 
ority in the war. His troops at first fought much better 
than those of the Parliament. Both armies, it is true, were 



104 MAC AUL AY'S HISTORY. 

almost entirely composed of men who had never seen a field 
of battle. Nevertheless, the difference was great. The 
parliamentary ranks were filled with hirelings whom want 
and idleness had induced to inlist. Hampden's regiment 
5 was regarded as one of the best ; and even Hampden's 
regiment was described by Cromwell as a mere rabble of 
tapsters and serving men out of place. The royal army, on 
the other hand, consisted in great part of gentlemen, high 
spirited, ardent, accustomed to consider dishonour as more 

10 terrible than death, accustomed to fencing, to the use of fire 
anus, to bold riding, and to manly and perilous sport, which 
has been well called the image of war. Such gentlemen, 
mounted on their favourite horses, and commanding little 
bands, composed of their younger brothers, grooms, game- 

15 keepers, and huntsmen, were, from the very first day on 
which they took the field, qualified to play their part with 
credit in a skirmish. The steadiness, the prompt obedience, 
the mechanical precision of movement, which are character- 
istic of the regular soldier, these gallant volunteers never 

20 attained. But they were at first opposed to enemies as 
undisciplined as themselves, and far less active, athletic, and 
daring. For a time, therefore, the Cavaliers were successful 
in almost every encounter. 

The Houses had also been unfortunate in the choice of a 

25 general. The rank and wealth of the Earl of Essex made 
him one of the most important members of the parliamentary 
party. He had borne arms on the Continent with credit, 
and, when the war began, had as high a military reputation 
as any man in the country. But it soon appeared that he 

SO was unfit for the post of Commander in Chief. He had little 
energy and no originality. The methodical tactics which he 
had learned in the war of the Palatinate did not save him 
from the disgrace of being surprised and baffled by such a 
captain as Rupert, who could claim no higher fame than 

85 that of an enterprising partisan. 

Nor were the officers who held the chief commissions 
under Essex qualified to supply what was wanting in him. 
For this, indeed, the Houses are scarcely to be blamed. In 



SUCCESSES OF THE EOYALISTS. 105 

a country which had not, within the memory of the oldest 
person living, made war on a great scale by land, generals of 
tried skill and valour were not to be found. It was necessary, 
therefore, in the first instance, to trust untried men; and the 
preference was naturally given to men distinguished either 5 
by their station, or by the abilities which they had displayed 
in Parliament. In scarcely a single instance, however, was 
the selection fortunate. Neither the grandees nor the orators 
proved good soldiers. The Earl of Stamford, one of the 
greatest nobles of England, was routed by the Royalists at 10 
Stratton. Nathaniel Eiennes, inferior to none of his con- 
temporaries in talents for civil business, disgraced himself by 
the pusillanimous surrender of Bristol. Indeed, of all the 
statesmen who at this juncture accepted high military 
commands, Hampden alone appears to have carried into the 15 
camp the capacity and strength of mind which had made 
him eminent in politics. 

When the war had lasted a year, the advantage was 
decidedly with the Royalists. They were victorious, both 
in the western and in the northern counties. They had 20 
wrested Bristol, the second city in the kingdom, from 
the Parliament. They had won several battles, and had 
not sustained a single serious or ignominious defeat. Among 
the Roundheads adversity had begun to produce dissension 
and discontent. The Parliament was kept in alarm, some- 25 
times by plots, and sometimes by riots. It was thought 
necessary to fortify London against the royal army, and 
to hang some disaffected citizens at their own doors. 
Several of the most distinguished peers who had hitherto 
remained at Westminster fled to the court at Oxford ; nor 30 
can it be doubted that, if the operations of the Cavaliers 
had, at this season, been directed by a sagacious and 
powerful mind, Charles would soon have marched in 
triumph to Whitehall. 

But the King suffered the auspicious moment to pass away ; 35 
and it never returned. In August 1643 he sate down before 
the city of Gloucester. That city was defended by the inha- 
bitants and by the garrison, with a determination such as 



106 macaulay's history. 

had not, since the commencement of the war, been shown 
by the adherents of the Parliament. The emulation of 
London was excited. The trainbands of the city volunteered 
to march wherever their services might be required. A great 
5 force was speedily collected, and began to move westward. 
The siege of Gloucester was raised : the Royalists in every 
part of the kingdom were disheartened : the spirit of the 
parliamentary party revived ; and the apostate Lords, who 
had lately fled from Westminster to Oxford, hastened back 

10 from Oxford to Westminster. 

And now a new and alarming class of symptoms began to 
appear in the distempered body politic. There had been, 
from the first, in the parliamentary party, some men whose 
minds were set on objects from which the majority of that 

15 party would have shrunk with horror. These men were, in 
religion, Independents. They conceived that every Christian 
congregation had, under Christ, supreme jurisdiction in things 
spiritual ; that appeals to provincial and national synods 
were scarcely less unscriptural than appeals to the Court of 

20 Arches, or to the Vatican ; and that Popery, Prelacy, and 
Presbyterianism were merely three forms of one great apos- 
tasy. In politics the Independents were, to use the phrase 
of their time, root and branch men, or, to use the kindred 
phrase of our own time, radicals. Not content with limiting 

25 the power of the monarch, they were desirous to erect a 
commonwealth on the ruins of the old English polity. At 
first they had been inconsiderable, both in numbers and in 
weight; but before the war had lasted two years they 
became, not indeed the largest, but the most powerful faction 

30 in the country. Some of the old parliamentary leaders had 
been removed by death ; and others had forfeited the public 
confidence. Pym had been borne, with princely honours, to 
a grave among the Plantagenets. Hampden had fallen, as 
became him, while vainly endeavouring, by his heroic 

35 example, to inspire his followers with courage to face the 
fiery cavalry of Rupert. Bedford had been untrue to the 
cause. Northumberland was known to be lukewarm. Essex 
and his lieutenants had shown little vigour and ability in the 



RISE OF THE INDEPENDENTS. 107 

conduct of military operations. At such a conjuncture it 
was that the Independent party, ardent, resolute, and uncom- 
promising, began to raise its head, both in the camp and in 
the House of Commons. 

The soul of that party was Oliver Cromwell. Bred to 5 
peaceful occupations, he had, at more than forty years of age, 
accepted a commission in the parliamentary army. No sooner 
had he become a soldier than he discerned, with the keen 
glance of genius, what Essex and men like Essex, with all 
their experience, were unable to perceive. He saw precisely 10 
where the strength of the Royalists lay, and by what means 
alone that strength could be overpowered. He saw that it 
was necessary to reconstruct the array of the Parliament. 
He saw also that there were abundant and excellent materials 
for the purpose, materials less showy, indeed, but more solid, 15 
than those of which the gallant squadrons of the King were 
composed. It was necessary to look for recruits who were 
not mere mercenaries, for recruits of decent station and grave 
character, fearing God and zealous for public liberty. With 
such men he filled his own regiment, and, while he subjected 20 
them to a discipline more rigid than had ever before been 
known in England, he administered to their intellectual and 
moral nature stimulants of fearful potency. 

The events of the year 1644 fully proved the superiority 
of his abilities. In the south, where Essex held the 25 
command, the parliamentary forces underwent a succession 
of shameful disasters ; but in the north the victory of 
Marston Moor fully compensated for all that had been lost 
elsewhere. That victory was not a more serious blow to the 
Royalists than to the party which had hitherto been 30 
dominant at Westminster ; for it was notorious that the day, 
disgracefully lost by the Presbyterians, had been retrieved 
by the energy of Cromwell, and by the steady valour of the 
warriors whom he had trained. 

These events produced the Selfdenying Ordinance and the 35 
new model of the army. Under decorous pretexts, and with 
every mark of respect, Essex and most of those who had 
held high posts under him were removed ; and the conduct 



108 macaulaYs history. 

of the war was entrusted to very different hands. Fairfax, 
a brave soldier, but of mean understanding and irresolute 
temper, was the nominal Lord General of the forces; but 
Cromwell was their real head. 
5 Cromwell made haste to organise the whole army on the 
same principles on which he had organised his own 
regiment. As soon as this process was complete, the event 
of the war was decided. The Cavaliers had now to encounter 
natural courage equal to their own, enthusiasm stronger than 

10 their own, and discipline such as was utterly wanting to 
them. It soon became a proverb that the soldiers of Fairfax 
and Cromwell were men of a different breed from the soldiers 
of Essex. At Naseby took place the first great encounter 
between the Royalists and the remodelled army of the 

15 Houses. The victory of the Roundheads was complete and 
decisive. It was followed by other triumphs in rapid 
succession. In a few months the authority of the Parliament 
was fully established over the whole kingdom. Charles 
fled to the Scots, and was by them, in a manner which did 

20 not much exalt their national character, delivered up to 
his English subjects. 

While the event of the war was still doubtful, the Houses 
had put the Primate to death, had interdicted, within the 
sphere of their authority, the use of the Liturgy, and 

25 had required all men to subscribe that renowned instrument 
known by the name of the Solemn League and Covenant. 
Covenanting work, as it was called, went on fast. Hundreds 
of thousands affixed their names to the rolls, and, with 
hands lifted up towards heaven, swore to endeavour, without 

30 respect of persons, the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy, 
heresy and schism, and to bring to public trial and condign 
punishment all who should hinder the reformation of 
religion. When the struggle was over, the work of in- 
novation and revenge was pushed on with increased ardour. 

35 The ecclesiastical polity of the kingdom was remodelled. 
Most of the old clergy were ejected from their benefices. 
Fines, of 'en of ruinous amount, were laid on the Royalists, 
already impoverished by large aids furnished to the King. 



DOMINATION AND CHARACTER OF THE ARMY. 109 

Many estates were confiscated. Many proscribed Cavaliers 
found it expedient to purchase, at an enormous cost, the 
protection of eminent members of the victorious party. 
Large domains, belonging to the crown, to the bishops, and 
to the chapters, were seized, and either granted away or put 5 
up to auction. In consequence of these spoliations, a great 
part of the soil of England was at once offered for sale. As 
money was scarce, as the market was glutted, as the title was 
insecure, and as the awe inspired by powerful bidders 
prevented free competition, the prices were often merely 10 
nominal. Thus many old and honourable families dis- 
appeared and were heard of no more ; and many new men 
rose rapidly to affluence. 

But, while the Houses were employing their authority 
thus, it suddenly passed out of their hands. It had been 15 
obtained by calling into existence a power which could not 
be controlled. In the summer of 1647, about twelve 
months after the last fortress of the Cavaliers had sub- 
mitted to the Parliament, the Parliament was compelled to 
submit to its own soldiers. 20 

Thirteen years followed, during which England was, under 
various names and forms, really governed by the sword. 
Never before that time, or since that time, was the civil 
power in our country subjected to military dictation. 

The army which now became supreme in the state w r as an 25 
army very different from any that has since been seen 
among us. At present the pay of the common soldier is 
not such as can seduce any but the humblest class of 
English labourers from their calling. A barrier almost 
impassable separates him from the commissioned officer. 30 
The great majority of those who rise high in the service rise 
by purchase. So numerous and extensive are the remote 
dependencies of England, that every man who enlists in the 
line must expect to pass many years in exile, and some 
years in climates unfavourable to the health and vigour 35 
of the European race. The army of the Long Parliament 
was raised for home, service. The pay of the private soldier 
was much above the wages earned by the great body of the 



110 macatjlay's history. 

people ; and, if he distinguished himself by intelligence and 
courage, he might hope to attain high commands. The 
ranks were accordingly composed of persons superior in 
station and education to the multitude. These persons, sober, 
5 moral, diligent, and accustomed to reflect, had been induced 
to take up arms, not by the pressure of want, not by the 
love of novelty and license, not by the arts of recruiting 
officers, but by religious and political zeal, mingled with the 
desire of distinction and promotion. The boast of the 

10 soldiers, as we find it recorded in their solemn resolutions, 
was that they had not been forced into the service, nor had 
enlisted chiefly for the sake of lucre, that they were no 
janissaries, but freeborn Englishmen, who had, of their own 
accord, put their lives in jeopardy for the liberties and 

15 religion of England, and whose right and duty it was 
to watch over the welfare of the nation which they had 
saved. 

A force thus composed might, without injury to its 
efficiency, be indulged in some liberties which, if allowed to 

20 any other troops, would have proved subversive of all 
discipline. In general, soldiers who should form themselves 
into political clubs, elect delegates, and pass resolutions 
on high questions of state, would soon break loose from all 
control, would cease to form an army, and would become 

25 the worst and most dangerous of mobs. 'Nov would it 
be safe, in our time, to tolerate in any regiment religious 
meetings, at which a corporal versed in Scripture should 
lead the devotions of his less gifted colonel, and admonish a 
backsliding major. But such was the intelligence, the 

30 gravity, and the selfcommand of the warriors whom 
Cromwell had trained, that in their camp a political organi- 
sation and a religious organisation could exist without 
destroying military organisation. The same men, who, off 
duty, were noted as demagogues and field preachers, were 

35 distinguished by steadiness, by the spirit of order, and 
by prompt obedience on watch, on drill, and on the field of 
battle. 

In war this strange force was irresistible. The stubborn 



DOMINATION AND CHAEACTER OF THE ARMY. Ill 

courage characteristic of the English people was, l>y the 
system of Cromwell, at once regulated and stimulated. 
Other leaders have maintained order as strict. Other leaders 
have inspired their followers with zeal as ardent. But in his 
camp alone the most rigid discipline was found in company 5 
with the fiercest enthusiasm. His troops moved to victory 
with the precision of machines, while burning with the 
wildest fanaticism of Crusaders. From the time when the 
army was remodelled to the time when it was disbanded, it 
never found, either in the British islands or on the Continent, 10 
an enemy who could stand its onset. In England, Scotland, 
Ireland, Flanders, the Puritan warriors, often surrounded by 
difficulties, sometimes contending against threefold odds, 
not only never failed to conquer, but never failed to destroy 
and break in pieces whatever force was opposed to them. 15 
They at length came to regard the day of battle as the day 
of certain triumph, and marched against the most renowned 
battalions of Europe with disdainful confidence. Turenne 
was startled by the shout of stern exultation with which his 
English allies advanced to the combat, and expressed the 20 
delight of a true soldier, when he learned that it was ever 
the fashion of Cromwell's pikemen to rejoice greatly when 
they beheld the enemy ; and the banished Cavaliers felt an 
emotion of national pride, when they saw a brigade of their 
countrymen, outnumbered by foes and abandoned by friends, 25 
drive before it in headlong rout the finest infantry of Spain, 
and force a passage into a counterscarp which had just been 
pronounced impregnable by the ablest of the Marshals of 
France. 

But that which chiefly distinguished the army of Crom- 30 
well from other armies was the austere morality and the 
fear of God which pervaded all ranks. It is acknowledged 
by the most zealous Roy lists that, in that singular camp, no 
oath was heard, no drunkenness or gambling was seen, and 
that during the long dominion of the soldiery, the property 35 
of the peaceable citizen and the honour of woman were held 
sacred. If outrages were committed, they were outrages of 
a very different kind from those of which a victorious army 



112 macaulay's history. 

is generally guilty. No servant girl complained of the 
rough gallantry of the redcoats. Not an ounce of plate was 
taken from the shops of the goldsmiths. But a Pelagian 
sermon, or a window on which the Virgin and Child were 
5 painted, produced in the Puritan ranks an excitement which 
it required the utmost exertions of the officers to quell. 
One of Cromwell's chief difficulties was to restrain his 
musqueteers and dragoons from invading by main force the 
pulpits of ministers whose discourses, to use the language of 

10 that time, were not savoury ; and too many of our cathedrals 
still bear the marks of the hatred with which those stern 
spirits regarded every vestige of Popery. 

To keep down the English people was no light task even 
for that army. No sooner was the first pressure of military 

15 tyranny felt, than the nation, unbroken to such servitude, 
began to struggle fiercely. Insurrections broke out even in 
those counties which, during the recent war, had been the 
most submissive to the Parliament. Indeed, the Parliament 
itself abhorred its old defenders more than its old enemies, 

20 and was desirous to come to terms of accommodation with 
Charles at the expense of the troops. In Scotland, at the 
same time, a coalition was formed between the Royalists 
and a large body of Presbyterians w r ho regarded the 
doctrines of the Independents with detestation. At length 

25 the storm burst. There were risings in Norfolk, Suffolk, 
Essex, Kent, Wales. The fleet in the Thames suddenly 
hoisted the royal colours, stood out to sea, and menaced the 
southern coast. A great Scottish force crossed the frontier 
and advanced into Lancashire. It might well be suspected 

30 that these movements were contemplated with secret com- 
placency by a majority both of the Lords and of the 
Commons. 

But the yoke of the army was not to be shaken off. 
While Fairfax suppressed the risings in the neighbourhood 

35 of the capital, Oliver routed the Welsh insurgents, and, 
leaving their castles in ruins, marched against the Scots. 
His troops were few, when compared with the invaders; 
but he was little in the habit of counting his enemies. The 



PROCEEDINGS AGAINST THE KING. 113 

Scottish army was utterly destroyed. A change in the 
Scottish government followed. An administration, hostile 
to the King, was formed at Edinburgh; and Cromwell, 
more than ever the darling of his soldiers, returned in 
triumph to London. 5 

And now a design, to which, at the commencement of 
the civil war, no man would have dared to allude, and 
which was not less inconsistent with the Solemn League 
and Covenant than with the old law of England, began to 
take a distinct form. The austere warriors who ruled the 10 
nation had, during some months, meditated a fearful 
vengeance on the captive King. When and how the scheme 
originated ; whether it spread from the general to the ranks, 
or from the ranks to the general; whether it is to be 
ascribed to policy using fanaticism as a tool, or to fanaticism 15 
bearing down policy with headlong impulse, are questions 
which, even at this day, cannot be answered with perfect 
confidence. It seems, however, on the whole, probable that 
he who seemed to lead was really forced to follow, and that, 
on this occasion, as on another great occasion a few years 20 
later, he sacrificed his own judgment and his own inclina- 
tions to the wishes of the army. For the power which he 
had called into existence was a power which even he could 
not always control ; and, that he might ordinarily command, 
it was necessary that he should sometimes obey. He 25 
publicly protested that he was no mover in the matter, that 
the first steps had been taken without his privity, that 
he could not advise the Parliament to strike the blow, but 
that he submitted his own feelings to the force of cir- 
cumstances which seemed to him to indicate the purposes of 30 
Providence. It has been the fashion to consider these pro- 
fessions as instances of the hypocrisy which is vulgarly 
imputed to him. But even those who pronounce him a 
hypocrite will scarcely venture to call him a fool. They are 
therefore bound to show that he had some purpose to serve 35 
by secretly stimulating the army to take that course which 
he did not venture openly to recommend. It would be absurd 
to suppose that he, who was never by his respectable enemies 



114 macaulay's history. 

represented as wantonly cruel or implacably vindictive, would 
have taken the most important step of his life under the 
influence of mere malevolence. He was far too wise a man 
not to know, when he consented to shed that august blood, 
5 that he was doing a deed which was inexpiable, and which 
would move the grief and horror, not only of the Royalists, 
but of nine tenths of those who had stood by the Par- 
liament. Whatever visions may have deluded others, he 
was assuredly dreaming neither of a republic on the antique 

10 pattern, nor of the millennial reign of the saints. If he 
already aspired to be himself the founder of a new dynasty, 
it was plain that Charles the First was a less formidable 
competitor than Charles the Second would be. At the 
moment of the death of Charles the First the loyalty of 

15 every Cavalier would be transferred, unimpaired, to Charles 
the Second. Charles the First was a captive : Charles the 
Second would be at liberty. Charles the First was an 
object of suspicion and dislike to a large proportion of those 
who yet .shuddered at the thought of slaying him : Charles 

20 the Second would excite all the interest which belongs to 
distressed youth and innocence. It is impossible to believe 
that considerations so obvious, and so important, escaped 
the most profound politician of that age. The truth is that 
Cromwell had, at one time, meant to mediate between the 

25 throne and the Parliament, and to reorganise the distracted 
State by the power of the sword, under the sanction of the 
royal name. In this design he persisted till he was com- 
pelled to abandon it by the refractory temper of the soldiers, 
and by the incurable duplicity of the King. A party in 

30 the camp began to clamour for the head of the traitor, who 
was treating with Agag. Conspiracies were formed. Threats 
of impeachment were loudly uttered. A mutiny broke out, 
which all the vigour and resolution of Oliver could hardly 
quell. And though, by a judicious mixture of severity and 

35 kindness, he succeeded in restoring order, he saw that it 
would be in the highest degree difficult and perilous to 
contend against the rage of warriors, who regarded the 
fallen tyrant as their foe, and as the foe of their God. At 



PKOCEEDINGS AGAINST THE KING. 115 

the same time it became more evident than ever that the 
King could not be trusted. The vices of Charles had grown 
upon him. They were, indeed, vices which difficulties and 
perplexities generally bring out in the strongest light. 
Cunning is the natural defence of the weak. A prince 5 
therefore, who is habitually a deceiver when at the height 
of power, is not likely to learn frankness in the midst of 
embarrassments and distresses. Charles was not only a 
most unscrupulous but a most unlucky dissembler. There 
never was a politician to whom so many frauds and false- 10 
hoods were brought home by undeniable evidence. He 
publicly recognised the Houses at Westminster as a legal 
Parliament, and, at the same time, made a private minute in 
council declaring the recognition null. He publicly dis- 
claimed all thought of calling in foreign aid against his 15 
people : he privately solicited aid from France, from 
Denmark, and from Loraine. He publicly denied that 
he employed Papists : at the same time he privately sent to 
his generals directions to employ every Papist that would 
serve. He publicly took the sacrament at Oxford, as a pledge 20 
that he never would even connive at Popery : he privately 
assured his wife, that he intended to tolerate Popery in 
England ; and he authorised Lord Glamorgan to promise 
that Popery should be established in Ireland. Then he 
attempted to clear himself at his agent's expense. 25 
Glamorgan received, in the royal handwriting, reprimands 
intended to be read by others, and eulogies which were to 
be seen only by himself. To such an extent, indeed, had 
insincerity now tainted the King's whole nature, that his 
most devoted friends could not refrain from complaining to 30 
each other, with bitter grief and shame, of his crooked 
politics. His defeats, they said, gave them less pain than 
his intrigues. Since he had been a prisoner, there was no 
section of the victorious party which had not been the 
object both of his flatteries and of his machinations : but 35 
never was he more unfortunate than when he attempted at 
once to cajole and to undermine Cromwell. 

Cromwell had to determine whether he would put to 



116 macaulay's history. 

hazard the attachment of his party, the attachment of his 
army, his own greatness, nay his own life, in an attempt, 
which would probably have been vain, to save a prince 
whom no engagement could bind. With many struggles 
5 and misgivings, and probably not without many prayers, the 
decision was made. Charles was left to his fate. The 
military saints resolved that, in defiance of the old laws of 
the realm, and of the almost universal sentiment of the 
nation, the King should expiate his crimes with his blood. 

10 He for a time expected a death like that of his unhappy 
predecessors, Edward the Second and Richard the Second. 
But he was in no danger of such treason. Those who had him 
in their gripe were not midnight stabbers. What they did 
they did in order that it might be a spectacle to heaven and 

15 earth, and that it might be held in everlasting remembrance. 
They enjoyed keenly the very scandal which they gave. 
That the ancient constitution and the public opinion of 
England were directly opposed to regicide made regicide 
seem strangely fascinating to a party bent on effecting a 

20 complete political and social revolution. In order to 
accomplish their purpose, it was necessary that they should 
first break in pieces every part of the machinery of the 
government; and this necessity was rather agreeable than 
painful to them. The Commons passed a vote tending to 

25 accommodation with the King. The soldiers excluded the 
majority by force. The Lords unanimously rejected the 
proposition that the King should be brought to trial. Their 
house was instantly closed. No court, known to the law, 
would take on itself the office of judging the fountain of 

30 justice. A revolutionary tribunal was created. That 
tribunal pronounced Charles a tyrant, a traitor, a murderer, 
and a public enemy; and his head was severed from his 
shoulders before thousands of spectators, in front of the 
banqueting hall of his own palace. 

35 In no long time it became manifest that those political 
and religious zealots, to whom this deed is to be ascribed, 
had committed, not only a crime, but an error. They had 
given to a prince, hitherto known to his people chiefly by 



EXECUTION OF THE KING. 117 

shis faults, an opportunity of displaying, on a great theatre, 
fbefore the eyes of all nations and all ages, some qualities 
-which irresistibly call forth the admiration and love of man- 
Ikind, the high spirit of a gallant gentleman, the patience 
&nd meekness of a penitent Christian. Nay, they had so 5 
•contrived their revenge that the very man whose life had 
Ibeen a series of attacks on the liberties of England now 
seemed to die a martyr in the cause of those liberties. No 
•demagogue ever produced such an impression on the public 
mind as the captive King, who, retaining in that extremity 10 
;all his regal dignity, and confronting death with dauntless 
courage, gave utterance to the feelings of his oppressed 
people, manfully refused to plead before a court unknown 
to the law, appealed from military violence to the principles 
of the constitution, asked by what right the House of 15 
Commons had been purged of its most respectable members 
and the House of Lords deprived of its legislative functions, 
and told his weeping hearers that he was defending not only 
his own cause, but theirs. His long misgovernment, his 
innumerable perfidies, were forgotten. His memory was, in 20 
the minds of the great majority of his subjects, associated 
with those free institutions which he had, during many 
years, laboured to destroy : for those free institutions had 
perished with him, and, amidst the mournful silence of a 
community kept down by arms, had been defended by his 2o 
voice alone. From that day began a reaction in favour of 
monarchy and of the exiled house, a reaction which never 
ceased till the throne had again been set up in all its old 
dignity. 

At first, however, the slayers of the King seemed to have 30 
derived new energy from that sacrament of blood by which 
they had bound themselves closely together, and separated 
themselves for ever from the great body of their countrymen. 
England was declared a commonwealth. The House of 
Commons, reduced to a small number of members, was 35 
nominally the supreme power in the state. In fact, the 
army and its great chief governed everything. Oliver had 
made his choice. He had kept the hearts of his soldiers, 



118 macaulay's histoky. 

and had broken with almost every other class of his fellow 
citizens. Beyond the limits of his camps and fortresses he 
could scarcely be said to have a party. Those elements of 
force which, when the civil war broke out, had appeared 
5 arrayed against each other, were combined against him ; all 
the Cavaliers, the great majority of the Roundheads, the 
Anglican Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Roman 
Catholic Church, England, Scotland, Ireland. Yet such 
was his genius and resolution that h«k was able to overpower 

10 and crush everything that crossed his path, to make himself 
more absolute master of his country than any of her legitimate 
Kings had been, and to make his country more dreaded and 
respected than she had been during many generations under 
the rule of her legitimate Kings. 

15 England had already ceased to struggle. But the two 
other kingdoms which had been governed by the Stuarts 
were hostile to the new republic. The Independent party 
was equally odious to the Roman Catholics of Ireland and to 
the Presbyterians of Scotland. Both those countries, lately 

20 in rebellion against Charles the First, now acknowledged 
the authority of Charles the Second. 

But everything yielded to the vigour and ability of 
Cromwell. In a few months he subjugated Ireland, as 
Ireland had never been subjugated during the five centuries 

25 of slaughter which had elapsed since the landing of the first 
Norman settlers. He resolved to put an end to that conflict 
of races and religions which had so long distracted the 
island, by making the English and Protestant population 
decidedly predominant. For this end he gave the rein to the 

30 fierce enthusiasm of his followers, waged war resembling that 
which Israel waged on the Canaanites, smote the idolators 
with the edge of the sword, so that great cities were left 
without inhabitants, drove many thousands to the Continent, 
shipped off many thousands to the West Indies, and supplied 

35 the void thus made by pouring in numerous colonists, of 
Saxon blood and of Calvinistic faith. Strange to say, under 
that iron rule, the conquered country began to wear an 
outward face of prosperity. Districts, which had recently 



EXPULSION OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 119 

been as wild as those where the first white settlers of 
Connecticut were contending with the red men, were in a 
few years transformed into the likeness of Kent and Norfolk. 
New buildings, roads, and plantations were everywhere 
seen. The rent of estates rose fast ; and soon the English 5 
landowners began to complain that they were met in every 
market by the products of Ireland, and to clamour for 
2^rotecting laws. 

From Ireland the victorious chief, who was now in name, 
as he had long been in reality, Lord General of the armies of 10 
the Commonwealth, turned to Scotland. The young King 
was there. He had consented to profess himself a Presby- 
terian, and to subscribe the Covenant; and, in return for 
these concessions, the austere Puritans who bore sway at 
Edinburgh had permitted him to assume the crown, and to 15 
hold, under their inspection and control, a solemn and 
melancholy court. This mock royalty was of short duration. 
In two great battles Cromwell annihilated the military force 
of Scotland. Charles fled for his life, and, with extreme 
difficulty, escaped the fate of his father. The ancient 20 
kingdom of the Stuarts was reduced, for the first time, 
to profound submission. Of that independence, so man- 
fully defended against the mightiest and ablest of the 
Plantagenets, no vestige was left. The English Parliament 
made laws for Scotland. English judges held assizes in 25 
Scotland. Even that stubborn Church, which has held 
its own against so many governments, scarce dared to utter 
an audible murmur. 

Thus far there had been at least the semblance of harmony 
between the warriors who had subjugated Ireland and 30 
Scotland and the politicians who sate at Westminster : but 
the alliance which had been cemented by danger was 
dissolved by victory. The Parliament forgot that it was 
but the creature of the army. The army was less disposed 
than ever to submit to the dictation of the Parliament. 35 
Indeed the few members who made up what was con- 
temptuously called the Rump of the House of Commons had 
no more claim than the military chiefs to be esteemed the 



120 macaulay's history. 

representatives of the nation. The dispute was soon brought 
to a decisive issue. Cromwell filled the House with armed 
men. The speaker was pulled out of his chair, the mace 
taken from the table, the room cleared, and the door 
5 locked. The nation, which loved neither of the contending 
parties, but which was forced, in its own despite, to 
respect the capacity and resolution of the General, looked 
on with patience, if not with complacency. 

King, Lords, and Commons, had now in turn been 

10 vanquished and destroyed ; and Cromwell seemed to be left 
the sole heir of the powers of all three. Yet were certain 
limitations still imposed on him by the very army to which 
he owed his immense authority. That singular body of men 
was, for the most part, composed of zealous republicans. In 

15 the act of enslaving their country, they had deceived them- 
selves into the belief that they were emancipating her. 
The book which they most venerated furnished them with a 
precedent which was frequently in their mouths. It was 
true that the ignorant and ungrateful nation murmured 

20 against its deliverers. Even so had another chosen nation 
murmured against the leader who brought it, by painful and 
dreary paths, from the house of bondage to the land flowing 
with milk and honey. Yet had that leader rescued his 
brethren in spite of themselves ; nor had he shrunk from 

25 making terrible examples of those who contemned the 
proffered freedom, and pined for the fleshpots, the task- 
masters, and the idolatries of Egypt. The object of the 
warlike saints who surrounded Cromwell was the settlement 
of a free and pious commonwealth. Eor that end they were 

30 ready to employ, without scruple, any means, however 
violent and lawless. It was not impossible, therefore, to 
establish by their aid a dictatorship such as no King had ever 
exercised : but it was probable that their aid would be at 
once withdrawn from a ruler who, even under strict consti- 

35 tutional restraints, should venture to assume the kingly name 
and dignity. 

The sentiments of Cromwell were widely different. He 
was not what he had been ; nor would it be just to consider 



EXPULSION OF THE LONG PAKLIAMENT. 121 

the change which his views had undergone as the effect 
merely of selfish ambition. He had, when he came up to 
the Long Parliament, brought with him from his rural 
retreat little knowledge of books, no experience of great 
affairs, and a temper galled by the long tyranny of the 5 
government and of the hierarchy. He had, during the 
thirteen years which followed, gone through a political 
education of no common kind. He had been a chief actor 
in a succession of revolutions. He had been long the soul, 
and at last the head, of a party. He had commanded armies, 10 
won battles, negotiated treaties, subdued, pacified, and 
regulated kingdoms. It would have been strange indeed if 
his notions had been still the same as in the days when his 
mind was principally occupied by his fields and his religion, 
and when the greatest events which diversified the course of 15 
his life were a cattle fair or a prayer meeting at Huntingdon. 
He saw that some schemes of innovation for which he had 
once been zealous, whether good or bad in themselves, were 
opposed to the general feeling of the country, and that, if he 
persevered in those schemes, he had nothing before him but 20 
constant troubles, which must be suppressed by the constant 
use of the sword. He therefore wished to restore, in all 
essentials, that ancient constitution which the majority of 
the people had always loved, and for which they now pined. 
The course afterwards taken by Monk was not open to 25 
Cromwell. The memory of one terrible day separated the 
great regicide for ever from the House of Stuart. What 
remained was that he should mount the ancient English 
throne, and reign according to the ancient English polity. 
If he could effect this, he might hope that the wounds of the 30 
lacerated State would heal fast. Great numbers of honest 
and quiet men would speedily rally around him. Those 
Royalists whose attachment was rather to institutions than 
to persons, to the kingly office than to King Charles the 
First or King Charles the Second, would soon kiss the hand 35 
of King Oliver. The peers, who now remained sullenly at 
their country houses, and refused to take any part in public 
affairs, would, when summoned to their house by the writ of 



122 macatjlay's history. 

a king in possession, gladly resume their ancient functions. 
Northumberland and Bedford, Manchester and Pembroke, 
would be proud to bear the crown and the spurs, the sceptre 
and the globe, before the restorer of aristocracy. A sen- 
5 timent of loyalty would gradually bind the people to the 
new dynasty ; and, on the decease of the founder of that 
dynasty, the royal dignity might descend with general 
acquiescence to his posterity. 

The ablest Royalists were of opinion that these views were 

10 correct, and that, if Cromwell had been permitted to follow 
his own judgment, the exiled line would never have been 
restored. But his plan was directly opposed to the feelings 
of the only class which he dared not offend. The name of 
king was hateful to the soldiers. Some of them were indeed 

15 unwilling to see the administration in the hands of any single 
person. The great majority, however, were disposed to 
support their general, as elective first magistrate of a 
commonwealth, against all factions which might resist his 
authority : but they would not consent that he should 

20 assume the regal title, or that the dignity, which was the 
just reward of his personal merit, should be declared here- 
ditary in his family. All that was left to him was to give to 
the new republic a constitution as like the constitution of 
the old monarchy as the army would bear. That his elevation 

25 to power might not seem to be merely his own act, he 
convoked a council, composed partly of persons on whose 
support he could depend, and partly of persons whose 
opposition he might safely defy. This assembly, which he 
called a Parliament, and which the populace nicknamed, 

30 from one of the most conspicuous members, Barebone's 
Parliament, after exposing itself during a short time to the 
public contempt, surrendered back to the General the 
powers which it had received from him, and left him at 
liberty to frame a plan of government. 

35 His plan bore, from the first, a considerable resemblance 

to the old English constitution : but, in a few years, 

■ he thought it safe to proceed further, and to restore almost 

every part of the ancient system under new names and 



THE PROTECTORATE OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 123 

forms. The title of king was not revived : but the kingly 
prerogatives were entrusted to a Lord High Protector. The 
sovereign was called not His Majesty, but His Highness. 
He was not crowned and anointed in Westminster Abbey, 
but was solemnly enthroned, girt with a sword of state, 5 
clad in a robe of purple, and presented with a rich Bible, in 
Westminster Hall. His office was not declared hereditary : 
but he was permitted to name his successor; and none could 
doubt that he would name his son. 

A House of Commons was a necessary part of the new 10 
polity. In constituting this body, the Protector showed a 
wisdom and a public spirit which were not duly appreciated 
by his contemporaries. The vices of the old representative 
system, though by no means so serious as they afterwards 
became, had already been remarked by farsighted men. 15 
Cromwell reformed that system on the same principles on 
which Mr. Pitt, a hundred and thirty years later, attempted 
to reform it, and on which it was at length reformed in 
our own times. Small boroughs were disfranchised even 
more unsparingly than in 1832 ; and the number of county 20 
members was greatly increased. Very few unrepresented 
towns had yet grown into importance. Of those towns the 
most considerable were Manchester, Leeds, and Halifax. 
Representatives were given to all three. An addition was 
made to the number of the members for the capital. The 2d 
elective franchise was placed on such a footing that every 
man of substance, whether possessed of freehold estates in 
land or not, had a vote for the county in which he resided. 
A few Scotchmen and a few of the English colonists settled 
in Ireland were summoned to the assembly which was to 30 
legislate, at Westminster, for every part of the British 
isles. 

To create a House of Lords was a less easy task. 
Democracy does not require the support of prescription. 
Monarchy has often stood without that support. But a 35 
patrician order is the work of time. Oliver found already 
existing a nobility, opulent, . highly considered, and as 
popular with the commonalty as any nobility has ever been. 



124 macatjlay's history. 

Had he, as King of England, commanded the peers to meet 
him in Parliament according to the old usage of the realm, 
many of them would undoubtedly have obeyed the call. 
This he could not do; and it was to no purpose that he offered 
5 to the chiefs of illustrious families seats in his new senate. 
They conceived that they could not accept a nomination to 
an upstart assembly without renouncing their birthright and 
betraying their order. The Protector was, therefore, under 
the necessity of filling his Upper House with new men who, 

10 during the late stirring times, had made themselves con- 
spicuous. This was the least happy of his contrivances, 
and displeased all parties. The Levellers were angry with 
him for instituting a privileged class. The multitude, which 
felt respect and fondness for the great historical names of 

15 the land, laughed without restraint at a House of Lords, in 
which lucky draymen and shoemakers were seated, to which 
few of the old nobles were invited, and from which almost 
all those old nobles who were invited turned disdainfully 
away. 

20 How Oliver's Parliaments were constituted, however, was 
practically of little moment : for he possessed the means of 
conducting the administration without their support, and in 
defiance of their opposition. His wish seems to have been 
to govern constitutionally, and to substitute the empire of 

25 the laws for that of the sword. But he soon found that, 
hated as he was, both by Royalists and Presbyterians, he 
could be safe only by being absolute. The first House of 
Commons which the people elected by his command, 
questioned his authority, and was dissolved without having 

30 passed a single act. His second House of Commons, though 
it recognised him as Protector, and would gladly have made 
him King, obstinately refused to acknowledge his new 
Lords. He had no course left but to dissolve the Parlia- 
ment. " God," he exclaimed, at parting, " be judge between 

35 you and me !" 

Yet was the energy of the Protector's administration in 
nowise relaxed by these dissensions. Those soldiers who 
would not suffer him to assume the kingly title stood by 



THE PROTECTORATE OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 125 

him when he ventured on acts of power, as high as any 
English king has ever attempted. The government, there- 
fore, though in form a republic, was in truth a despotism, 
moderated only by the wisdom, the sobriety, and the 
magnanimity of the despot. The country was divided into 5 
military districts. Those districts were placed under the 
command of Major Generals. Every insurrectionary move- 
ment was promptly put down and punished. The fear 
inspired by the power of the sword, in so strong, steady, 
and expert a hand, quelled the spirit both of Cavaliers and 10 
Levellers. The loyal gentry declared that they were still as 
ready as ever to risk their lives for the old government and 
the old dynasty, if there were the slightest hope of success : 
but to rush, at the head of their serving men and tenants, 
on the pikes of brigades victorious in a hundred battles and 15 
sieges, would be a frantic waste of innocent and honourable 
blood. Both Eoyalists and Republicans, having no hope in 
open resistance, began to revolve dark schemes of assassina- 
tion : but the Protector's intelligence was good : his vigil- 
ance was unremitting ; and, whenever he moved beyond the 20 
walls of his palace, the drawn swords and cuirasses of his 
trusty bodyguards encompassed him thick on every side. 

Had he been a cruel, licentious, and rapacious prince, the 
nation might have found courage in despair, and might have 
made a convulsive effort to free itself from military domina- 25 
tion. But the grievances which the country suffered, 
though such as excited serious discontent, were by no means 
such as impel great masses of men to stake their lives, their 
fortunes, and the welfare of their families against fearful 
odds. The taxation, though heavier than it had been under 30 
the Stuarts, was not heavy when compared with that of the 
neighbouring states and with the resources of England. 
Property was secure. Even the Cavalier who refrained 
from giving disturbance to the new settlement, enjoyed in 
peace whatever the civil troubles had left him. The laws 35 
were violated only in cases where the safety of the 
Protector's person and government was concerned. Justice 
was administered between man and man with an exactness 



126 macaulay's histoey. 

and purity not before known. Under no English govern- 
ment since the Eeformation had there been so little religious 
persecution. The unfortunate Roman Catholics, indeed, 
were held to be scarcely within the pale of Christian 
5 charity. But the clergy of the fallen Anglican Church were 
suffered to celebrate their worship on condition that they 
would abstain from preaching about politics. Even the 
Jews, whose public worship had, ever since the thirteenth 
century, been interdicted, were, in spite of the strong oppo- 

10 sition of jealous traders and fanatical theologians, permitted 
to build a synagogue in London. 

The Protector's foreign policy at the same time extorted 
the ungracious approbation of those who most detested 
him. The Cavaliers could scarcely refrain from wishing 

15 that one who had done so much to raise the fame of the 
nation had been a legitimate King ; and the Republicans 
were forced to own that the tyrant suffered none but himself 
to wrong his country, and that, if he had robbed her of 
liberty, he had at least given her glory in exchange. After 

20 half a century during which England had been of scarcely 
more weight in European politics than Venice or Saxony, 
she at once became the most formidable power in the world, 
dictated terms of peace to the United Provinces, avenged 
the common injuries of Christendom on the pirates of 

25 Barbary, vanquished the Spaniards by land and sea, seized 
one of the finest West Indian Islands, and acquired on the 
Flemish coast a fortress which consoled the national pride 
for the loss of Calais. She was supreme on the ocean. She 
was the head of the Protestant interest. All the reformed 

30 Churches scattered over Roman Catholic kingdoms acknow- 
ledged Cromwell as their guardian. The Huguenots of 
Languedoc, the shepherds who, in the hamlets of the Alps, 
professed a Protestantism older than that of Augsburg, were 
secured from oppression by the mere terror of that great 

35 name. The pope himself was forced to preach humanity 
and moderation to popish princes. For a voice which 
seldom threatened in vain had declared that, unless favour 
were shown to the people of God, the English guns should 



OLIVER SUCCEEDED BY RICHARD. 127 

be heard in the Castle of Saint Angelo. In truth, there 
was nothing which Cromwell had, for his own sake and 
that of his family, so much reason to desire as a general 
religious war in Europe. In .such a war he must have been 
the captain of the Protestant armies. The heart of England 5 
would have been with him. His victories would have been 
hailed with an unanimous enthusiasm unknown in the 
country since the rout of the Armada, and would have 
effaced the stain which one act, condemned by the general 
voice of the nation, has left on his splendid fame. Un- 10 
happily for him he had no opportunity of displaying his 
admirable military talents, except against the inhabitants of 
the British Isles. 

While he lived his power stood firm, an object of mingled 
aversion, admiration, and dread to his subjects. Few 15 
indeed loved his government ; but those who hated it most 
hated it less than they feared it. Had it been a worse 
government, it might perhaps have been overthrown in 
spite of all its strength. Had it been a weaker govern- 
ment, it would certainly have been overthrown in spite of 20 
all its merits. But it had moderation enough to abstain 
from those oppressions which drive men mad ; and it had 
a force and energy which none but men driven mad by 
oppression would venture to encounter. 

It has often been affirmed, but with little reason, that 25 
Oliver died at a time fortunate for his renown, and that, if 
his life had been prolonged, it would probably have closed 
amidst disgraces and disasters. It is certain that he was, 
to the last, honoured by his soldiers, obeyed by the whole 
population of the British islands, and dreaded by all 30 
foreign powers, that he was laid among the ancient 
sovereigns of England with funeral pomp such as London 
had never before seen, and that he was succeeded by his 
son Richard as quietly as any King had ever been succeeded 
by any Prince of Wales. 35 

During five months, the administration of Richard 
Cromwell went on so tranquilly and regularly that all 
Europe believed him to be firmly established on the chair of 



128 MACAULAY'S HISTORY. 

state. In truth his situation was in some respects much 
more advantageous than that of his father. The young 
man had made no enemy. His hands were unstained by 
civil blood. The Cavaliers themselves allowed him to be 
5 an honest, good-natured gentleman. The Presbyterian 
party, powerful both in numbers and in wealth, had been at 
deadly feud with the late Protector, but was disposed 
to regard the present Protector with favour. That party 
had always been desirous to see the old civil polity of the 

10 realm restored with some clearer definitions and some 
stronger safeguards for public liberty, but had many 
reasons for dreading the restoration of the old family. 
Eichard was the very man for politicians of this description. 
His humanity, ingenuousness, and modesty, the mediocrity 

15 of his abilities, and the docility with which he submitted 
to the guidance of persons wiser than himself, admirably 
qualified him to be the head of a limited monarchy. 

For a time it seemed highly probable that he would, 
under the direction of able advisers, effect what his father 

20 had attempted in vain. A Parliament was called, and the 
writs were directed after the old fashion. The small 
boroughs which had recently been disfranchised regained 
their lost privilege : Manchester, Leeds, and Halifax ceased 
to return members; and the county of York was again 

25 limited to two knights. It may seem strange to a genera- 
tion which has been excited almost to madness by the 
question of parliamentary reform that great shires and 
towns should have submitted with patience, and even with 
complacency, to this change : but though speculative men 

30 might, even in that age, discern the vices of the old repre- 
sentative system, and predict that those vices would, sooner 
or later, produce serious practical evil, the practical evil 
had not yet been felt. Oliver's representative system, on 
the other hand, though constructed on sound principles, was 

35 not popular. Both the events in which it originated, and 
the effects which it had produced, prejudiced men against 
it. It had sprung from military violence. It had been 
fruitful of nothing but disputes. The whole nation wag 



OLIVER SUCCEEDED BY RICHARD. 129 

sick of government by the sword, and pined for government 
by the law. The restoration, therefore, even of anomalies 
and abuses, which were in strict conformity with the law, 
and which had been destroyed by the sword, gave general 
satisfaction. 5 

Among the Commons there was a strong opposition, con- 
sisting partly of avowed Republicans, and partly of con- 
cealed Royalists : but a large and steady majority appeared 
to be favourable to the plan of reviving the old civil con- 
stitution under a new dynasty. Richard was solemnly 10 
recognised as first magistrate. The Commons not only 
consented to transact business with Oliver's Lords, but 
passed a vote acknowledging the right of those nobles who 
had, in the late troubles, taken the side of public liberty, to 
sit in the Upper House of Parliament without any new 15 
creation. 

Thus far the statesmen by whose advice Richard acted 
had been successful. Almost all the parts of. the govern- 
ment were now constituted as they had been constituted at 
the commencement of the civil war. Had the Protector 20 
and the Parliament been suffered to proceed undisturbed, 
there can be little doubt than an order of things similar to 
that which was afterwards established under the House of 
Hanover would have been established under the House of 
Cromwell. But there was in the state a power more than 25 
sufficient to deal with Protector and Parliament together. 
Over the soldiers Richard had no authority except that 
which he derived from the great name which he had 
inherited. He had never led them to victory. He had 
never even borne arms. All his tastes and habits were 30 
pacific. Nor were his opinions and feelings on religious 
subjects approved by the military saints. That he was a 
good man he evinced, by proofs more satisfactory than deep 
groans or long sermons, by humility and suavity when he 
was at the height of human greatness, and by cheerful 35 
resignation under cruel wrong and misfortunes : but the cant 
then common in every guardroom gave him a disgust which 
he had not always the prudence to conceal. The officers 

K 



130 macaulay's histoey. 

who had the principal influence among the troops stationed 
near London were not his friends. They were men distin- 
guished by valour and conduct in the field, but destitute of 
the wisdom and civil courage which had been conspicuous 
5 in their deceased leader. Some of them were honest, but 
fanatical, Independents and Eepublicans. Of this class 
Fleetwood .was the representative. Others were impatient 
to be what Oliver had been. His rapid elevation, his 
prosperity and glory, his inauguration in the Hall, and his 

10 gorgeous obsequies in the Abbey, had inflamed their 
imagination. They were as well born as he, and as well 
educated : they could not understand why they were not as 
worthy to wear the purple robe, and to wield the sword of 
state ; and they pursued the objects of their wild ambition, 

15 not, like him, with patience, vigilance, sagacity, and 
determination, but with the restlessness and irresolution 
characteristic of aspiring mediocrity. Among these feeble 
copies of a great original the most conspicuous was 
Lambert. 

20 On the very day of Richard's accession the officers began 
to conspire against their new master. The good under- 
standing which existed between him and his Parliament 
hastened the crisis. Alarm and resentment spread through 
the camp. Both the religious and the professional feelings 

25 of the army were deeply wounded. It seemed that the 
Independents were to be subjected to the Presbyterians, and 
that the men of the sword were to be subjected to the men 
of the gown. A coalition was formed between the military 
malecontents and the Republican minority of the House of 

30 Commons. It may well be doubted whether Richard could 
have triumphed over that coalition, even if he had inherited 
his father's clear judgment and iron courage. It is certain 
that simplicity and meekness like his were not the qualities 
which the conjuncture required. He fell ingloriously and 

35 without a struggle. He was used by the army as an 
instrument for the purpose of dissolving the Parliament, 
and was then contemptuously thrown aside. The officers 
gratified their republican allies by declaring that the 



SECOND EXPULSION OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT. 131 

expulsion of the Ramp had been illegal, and by inviting 
that assembly to resume its functions. The old Speaker 
and a quorum of the old members came together, and were 
proclaimed, amidst the scarcely stifled derision and execra- 
tion of the whole nation, the supreme power in the common- 5 
wealth. It was at the same time expressly declared that 
there should be no first magistrate and no House of Lords. 

But this state of things could not last. On the day on 
which the Long Parliament revived, revived also its old 
quarrel with the army. Again the Rump forgot that it 10 
owed its existence to the pleasure of the soldiers, and began 
to treat them as subjects. Again the doors of the House of 
Commons were closed by military violence; and a pro- 
visional government, named by the officers, assumed the 
direction of affairs. 15 

Meanwhile the sense of great evils, and the strong 
apprehension of still greater evils close at hand, had at 
length produced an alliance between the Cavaliers and the 
Presbyterians. Some Presbyterians had, indeed, been dis- 
posed to such an alliance even before the death of Charles 20 
the First : but it was not till after the fall of Richard 
Cromwell that the whole party became eager for the 
restoration of the royal house. There was no longer any 
reasonable hope that the old constitution could be re- 
established under a new dynasty. One choice only was 25 
left, the Stuarts or the army. The banished family had 
committed great faults ; but it had dearly expiated those 
faults, and had undergone a long, and, it might be hoped, a 
salutary training in the school of adversity. It was pro- 
bable that Charles the Second would take warning by the 30 
fate of Charles the First. But, be this as it might, the 
dangers which threatened the country were such that, in 
in order to avert them, some opinions might well be 
compromised, and some risks might well be incurred. It 
seemed but too likely that England would fall under the 35 
most odious and degrading of all kinds of government, 
under a government uniting all the evils of despotism to all 
the evils of anarchy. Any thing was preferable to the 



132 macaulay's history. 

yoke of a succession of incapable and inglorious tyrants, 
raised to power, like the Deys of Barbary, by military 
revolutions recurring at short intervals. Lambert seemed 
likely to be the first of these rulers ; but within a year 
5 Lambert might give place to Desborough, and Desborough 
to Harrison. As often as the truncheon was transferred 
from one feeble hand to another, the nation would be 
pillaged for the purpose of bestowing a fresh donative on 
the troops. If the Presbyterians obstinately stood aloof 

10 from the Royalists, the state was lost ; and men might well 
doubt whether, by the combined exertions of Presbyterians 
and Royalists, it could be saved. For the dread of that 
invincible army was on all the inhabitants of the island : 
and the Cavaliers, taught by a hundred disastrous fields 

15 how little numbers can effect against discipline, were even 
more completely cowed than the Roundheads. 

While the soldiers remained united, all the plots and risings 
of the malecontents were ineffectual. But a few days after the 
second expulsion of the Rump, came tidings which gladdened 

20 the hearts of all who were attached either to monarchy 
or to liberty. That mighty force which had, during many 
years, acted as one man, and which, while so acting, had 
been found irresistible, was at length divided against itself. 
The army of Scotland had done good service to the Com- 

25 monwealth, and was in the highest state of efficiency. It 
had borne no part in the late revolutions, and had seen them 
with indignation resembling the indignation which the 
Roman legions posted on the Danube and the Euphrates 
felt, when they learned that the empire had been put up to 

30 sale by the Praetorian Guards. It was intolerable that 
certain regiments should, merely because they happened 
to be quartered near Westminster, take on themselves to 
make and unmake several governments in the course of half 
a year. If it were fit that the state should be regulated 

35 by the soldiers, those soldiers who upheld the English 
ascendency on the north of the Tweed were as well entitled 
to a voice as those who garrisoned the Tower of London. 
There appears to have been lesg fanaticism among the troops 



THE ARMY OF SCOTLAND INVADES ENGLAND. 133 

stationed in Scotland than in any other part of the army ; 
and their General, George Monk, was himself the very 
opposite of a zealot. He had, at the commencement of the 
civil war, borne arms for the King, had been made prisoner 
by the Roundheads, had then accepted a commission from 5 
the Parliament, and, with very slender pretensions to saint- 
ship, had raised himself to high commands by his courage 
and professional skill. He had been an useful servant- 
to both the Protectors, had quietly acquiesced when the 
officers at Westminster pulled down Richard and restored the 10 
Long Parliament, and would perhaps have acquiesced as 
quietly in the second expulsion of the Long Parliament, if the 
provisional government had abstained from giving him cause 
of offence and apprehension. For his nature was cautious and 
somewhat sluggish ; nor was he at all disposed to hazard 15 
sure and moderate advantages for the chance of obtaining 
even the most splendid success. He seems to have been 
impelled to attack the new rulers of the Commonwealth less 
by the hope that, if he overthrew them, he should become 
great, than by the fear that, if he submitted to them, 20 
he should not even be secure. Whatever were his motives, 
he declared himself the champion of the oppressed civil 
power, refused to acknowledge the usurped authority of the 
provisional government, and, at the head of seven thousand 
veterans, marched into England. 25 

This step was the signal for a general explosion. The 
people everywhere refused to pay taxes. The apprentices of 
the City assembled by thousands and clamoured for a free 
Parliament. The fleet sailed up the Thames, and declared 
against the tyranny of the soldiers. The soldiers, no longer 30 
under the control of one commanding mind, separated into 
factions. Every regiment, afraid lest it should be left alone 
a mark for the vengeance of the oppressed nation, hastened 
to make a separate peace. Lambert, who had hastened 
northward to encounter the army of Scotland, was abandoned 35 
by his troops, and became a prisoner. During thirteen 
years the civil power had, in every conflict, been compelled 
to yield to the military power. The military power now 



134 macaulay's history. 

humbled itself before the civil power. The Rump, generally 
hated and despised, but still the only body in the country 
which had any show of legal authority, returned again to the 
house from which it had been twice ignominiously expelled. 
5 In the mean time Monk was advancing towards London. 
Wherever he came, the gentry flocked round him, imploring 
him to use his power for the purpose of restoring peace and 
liberty to the distracted nation. The General, coldblooded, 
taciturn, zealous for no polity and for no religion, maintained 

10 an impenetrable reserve. What were at this time his plans, 
and whether he had any plan, may well be doubted. His 
great object, apparently, was to keep himself, as long as 
possible, free to choose between several lines of action. 
Such, indeed, is commonly the policy of men who are, like 

15 him, distinguished rather by wariness than by farsightedness. 
It was probably not till he had been some days in the capital 
that he had made up his mind. The cry of the whole people 
was for a Free Parliament ; and there could be no doubt that 
a Parliament really free would instantly restore the exiled 

20 family. The Rump and the soldiers were still hostile to the 
House of Stuart. But the Rump was universally detested 
and despised. The power of the soldiers was indeed still 
formidable, but had been greatly diminished by discord. 
They had no head. They had recently been, in many parts 

25 of the country, arrayed against each other. On the very day 
before Monk reached London, there was a fight in the 
Strand between the cavalry and the infantry. An united 
army had long kept down a divided nation : but the nation 
was now united, and the army was divided. 

30 During a short time, the dissimulation or irresolution 
of Monk kept all parties in a state of painful suspense. 
At length he broke silence, and declared for a Free 
Parliament. 

As soon as his declaration was known, the whole nation 

35 was wild with delight. Wherever he appeared thousands 
thronged round him, shouting and blessing his name. The 
bells of all England rang j oy ously : the gutters ran with ale; 
and, night after night, the sky five miles round London was 



GENERAL ELECTION OF 1660. 135 

reddened by innumerable bonfires. Those Presbyterian 
members of the House of Commons who had many years 
before been expelled by the army, returned to their seats, 
and were hailed with acclamations by great multitudes, 
which filled Westminster Hall and Palace Yard. The 5 
Independent leaders no longer dared to show their faces in 
the streets, and were scarcely safe within their own dwellings. 
Temporary provision was made for the government : writs 
were issued for a general election ; and then that memorable 
Parliament, which had, in the course of twenty eventful 10 
years, experienced every variety of fortune, which had 
triumphed over its sovereign, which had been enslaved and 
degraded by its servants, which had been twice ejected and 
twice restored, solemnly decreed its own dissolution. 

The result of the elections was such as might have been 15 
expected from the temper of the nation. The new House 
of Commons consisted, with few exceptions, of persons 
friendly to the royal family. The Presbyterians formed 
the majority. 

That there would be a restoration now seemed almost 20 
certain ; but whether there would be a peaceable restoration 
was matter of painful doubt. The soldiers were in a gloomy 
and savage mood. They hated the title of King. They 
hated the name of Stuart. They hated Presbyterianism 
much, and Prelacy more. They saw with bitter indignation 25 
that the close of their long domination was approaching, 
and that a life of inglorious toil and penury was before them. 
They attributed their ill fortune to the weakness of some 
generals, and to the treason of others. One hour of their 
beloved Oliver might even now restore the glory which had 30 
departed. Betrayed, disunited, and left without any chief in 
whom they could confide, they were yet to be dreaded. It 
was no light thing to encounter the rage and despair of 
fifty thousand fighting men, whose backs no enemy had ever 
seen. Monk, and those with whom he acted, were well 35 
aware that the crisis was most perilous. They employed 
every art to sooth and divide the discontented warriors. At 
the same time vigorous preparation was made for a conflict. 



136 macaulay's histoey. 

The army of Scotland, now quartered in London, was kept 
in good humour by bribes, praises, and promises. The 
wealthy citizens grudged nothing to a red coat, and were 
indeed so liberal of their best wine, that warlike saints were 
5 sometimes seen in a condition not very honourable either to 
their religious or to their military character. Some re- 
fractory regiments Monk ventured to disband. In the 
meantime the greatest exertions were made by the provisional 
government, with the strenuous aid of the whole body of 

10 the gentry and magistracy, to organise the militia. In every 
county the trainbands were held ready to march ; and this 
force cannot be estimated at less than a hundred and twenty 
thousand men. In Hyde Park twenty thousand citizens, 
well armed and accoutred, passed in review, and showed 

15 a spirit which justified the hope that, in case of need, they 
would fight manfully for their shops and firesides. The 
fleet was heartily with the nation. It was a stirring time, a 
time of anxiety, yet of hope. The prevailing opinion was 
that England would be delivered, but not without a desperate 

20 and bloody struggle, and that the class which had so long 
ruled by the sword would perish by the sword. 

Happily the dangers of a conflict were averted. There 
was indeed one moment of extreme peril. Lambert escaped 
from his confinement, and called his comrades to arms. The 

25 flame of civil war was actually rekindled ; but by prompt 
and vigorous exertion it was trodden out before it had time 
to spread. The luckless imitator of Cromwell was again 
a prisoner. The failure of his enterprise damped the 
spirit of the soldiers, and they sullenly resigned themselves 

30 to their fate. 

The new Parliament, which, having been called without 
the royal writ, is more accurately described as a Convention, 
met at Westminster. The Lords repaired to the hall, from 
which they had, during more than eleven years, been 

35 excluded by force. Both Houses instantly invited the King 
to return to his country. He was proclaimed with pomp 
never before known. A gallant fleet convoyed him from 
Holland to the coast of Kent. When he landed, the cliffs of 



THE RESTORATION. 137 

Dover were covered by thousands of gazers, among whom 
scarcely one could be found who was not weeping with 
delight. The journey to London was a continued triumph. 
The whole road from Rochester was bordered by booths and 
tents, and looked like an interminable fair. Everywhere 5 
flags were flying, bells and music sounding, wine and ale 
flowing in rivers to the health of him whose return was the 
return of peace, of law, and of freedom. But in the midst 
of the general joy, one spot presented a dark and threatening 
aspect. On Blackheath the army was drawn up to welcome 10 
the sovereign. He smiled, bowed, and extended his hand 
graciously to the lips of the colonels and majors. But all 
his courtesy was vain. The countenances of the soldiers 
were sad and lowering ; and, had they given way to their 
feelings, the festive pageant of which they reluctantly made 15 
a part would have had a mournful and bloody end. But 
there was no concert among them. Discord and defection 
had left them no confidence in their chiefs or in each other. 
The whole array of the City of London was under arms. 
Numerous companies of militia had assembled from various 20 
parts of the realm, under the command of loyal noblemen 
and gentlemen, to welcome the King. That great day closed 
in peace, and the restored wanderer reposed safe in the 
palace of his ancestors. 



NOTES 



Page 2. 3 ' Cortes ' conquered Mexico 1 520- 1 ; ' Pizarro ' conquered 
Peru 1532-5. See Prescott's Histories. 

3. 29 'Tyrian mariners.' "It remains uncertain whether Phoe- 
nician or Carthaginian traders actually visited Cornwall, or whether 
they obtained their supplies of tin through Gaul." (Encycl. Brit., sub 
Cornwall.) 

4. 17 ' Alaric,' king of the Visigoths (West Goths), captured Rome 
in 410 ; his successors ruled in Spain and southern Gaul. ' Theodoric,' 
king of the Ostrogoths (East Goths) from 474 to 526, conquered Italy 
and reigned nominally as representative of the Emperor, really as an 
independent king. See Hodgkin's Theodoric the Goth. 

18 ' Clovis,' 481-5 1 1 king of the Salian Franks, ruled over northern 
Gaul and central Germany. 

' Alboin ' founded the Lombard Dominion in Italy 568 ; it 
lasted till 774, when it was finally overthrown by Charlemagne. (The 
Lombards were previously settled in Pannonia.) 

19 ' Ida,' first king of Bernicia, reigned from 547 to 559. ' Cerdic' 
founded the kingdom of the West Saxons 519; died 534. 

22 'Paris,' capital of the Merovingians, successors of Clovis. 

' Toledo,' capital of the Visigoths from 507 till its capture by the 
Arabs in 711. 

1 Aries,' residence of the Gothic king Euric (d. 485), though it is 
possible that Macaulay had in his mind the kingdom of Aries 
(Burgundy), founded in 888. ' Ravenna,' capital of Odoacer (476- 
493) and Theoderic (493-526). 

27 ' Zernebock,' a Slav, not Teutonic, deity ; later editions read Thor 
and Woden. 

35 ' Polycletus,' of Argos, contemporary of Phidias, fl. B.C. 452-412. 

'Apelles,' most famous painter of ancient times, fl. c. B.C. 330; 
friend of Alexander the Great. 

5. 4 ' Scylla,' Odyssey, Book xii. 'Lsestrygonian,' ibid. x. 80-132. 



140 macaulay's history. 

Page 5. 6 ' Procopius,' born at Caesarea, in Palestine ; historian of 
the Wars of Belisarius and the Age of Justinian. Died c. 565. See 
Procopius' De Bello Gothico, Lib. iv., cap. 20. (Dinclorfs edition, 
vol. ii., pp. 565-9.) He expressly refuses to vouch for the truth of 
the story. 

15 'Belisarius,' the general of Justinian, put an end to the Vandal 
dominion in Africa (533), subdued the Goths in Italy in 539, and 
waged a less successful war with them in 546-8. 

' Simplicius,' the last of the Athenian philosophers, fl. 530 ; some 
of his works are still extant. Gibbon, vii. 150-2. (Ed. 1790.) 

16 'Tribonian' (fl. 527-546) was Justinian's principal agent in the 
codification of the Roman law; "his genius, like that of Bacon, 
embraced, as his own, all the business and knowledge of the age." 
Gibbon, viii. 34. 

17 ' founder of Constantinople. ' Constantine was hailed as Emperor 
by the army in Britain on his father's death (A.D. 306). 

21 ' Odoacer,' general of the barbarian mercenaries, extinguished the 
Western Empire 476, and ruled at Ravenna as vicar of the Eastern Em- 
peror with the title and power of king. Bryce, Holy Roman E??ipire. 

22 ' Totila,' king of the Ostrogoths in Italy, resisted Belisarius, and 
was defeated and slain by Narses, 552. Gibbon, viii. 355-389. 

'Euric' See above, p. 4, 1. 22, note. * Thrasimund,' king of 
the Vandals in Africa, 496-523. 

' Fredegonda and Brunechild ' were wives respectively of the 
Merovingian brothers, Chilperic and Sigibert (who divided the Frank 
kingdom of Clovis between them in 561), and famous for their crimes. 

23 ' Hengist ' = horse ; * Horsa ' — mare. The Anglo - Saxon 
Chronicle (anno 449) says : " Hengist and Horsa, invited by Vortigern, 
king of the Britons, landed in Britain." Probably they are historical 
persons ; Vortigern is mentioned as ' Gurthrigern ' by the British 
historian Gildas, who wrote about A.D. 550. (But cf. Rhys, Celtic 
Britain, p. 97.) The story of Vortigern marrying ' Rowena,' Hengist's 
daughter, is found, not in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, but in the 
Historia Britonum (Book vi., chap. 12), of Geoffrey of Monmouth 
(died c. 1 1 54), which is a collection of romantic legends. (Trans- 
lation in Bonn's Six Old English Chronicles.) 

24 'Arthur' is noticed by Nennius (wrote c. 850) ; and the legends 
about him are to be found in Geoffrey of Monmouth, who also gives 
an account of his nephew 'Mo(r)dred.' Probably there was a British 
{i.e. Welsh) prince of this name who resisted the English in the early 
part of the sixth century ; but he is not mentioned by Gildas, who was 
a Briton and living at the same time. See also York Powell, History 
of England, L 165. 

30 ' conversion,' begun by Augustine in 597, and carried on by Aidan 
and the Irish monks from Iona in 635. See Bede, Hist. Eccles. 



NOTES. 141 

Page 6. 16 'Dunstan,' chief adviser of Eadgar (959-975). and 
Archbishop of Canterbury, died 988; he was the first ecclesiastical 
statesman who governed England. 

'Penda,' king of the Mercians 626-655, is usually represented as 
a bitter persecutor of Christians ; but Bede says, " King Penda did not 
forbid the preaching of the gospel even among his own people, the 
Mercians ; but hated and despised those who, while professing 
Christianity, did not perform the works of faith, saying that they were 
contemptible and wretched who did not obey their God in whom they 
believed." Hist. Ecclesiast. iii. 21. 

23 'tyrants,' etc. Ethelred, son of Penda, king of the Mercians 
675-704, became a monk ; his successor, Kenred, resigned the crown 
and went to Rome in 709. Ceadwalla, king of the West Saxons, 
resigned his crown and went to Rome in 688 ; his successor, the wise 
King Ine, did likewise in 726. Ceolwulf (737) and Eadbert (757), 
kings of the Northumbrians, became monks. See the Anglo-Saxon 
Chronicle, and Freeman's Old English History. 

29 'some writers.' This is probably aimed especially at Hume and 
Voltaire. 

7. 3 'contempt with which,' etc. See especially Gibbon's Decline 
and Fall. 

20 'overwhelmed by the Mahometan power.' It is very doubtful 
whether the Crusades permanently checked the growth of the 
Mahometan power. See Hallam, Middle Ages, chapter vi. (vol. i., 
p. 488, ed. 1841), and Pears' Fall of Constantinople, p. 399. 

29 ' Analytics of Aristotle,' works on logic. 

8. 10 ' Olympian chariot course,' etc. See Grote, Hist, of Greece, 
part ii., ch. ii. The Pythian oracle at Delphi was not exclusively 
Hellenic, but was consulted by other peoples. 

13 'Latin communion,' as distinguished from the Greek church. 

29 ' Dome of Agrippa,' now called the Pantheon, or church of S. 
Maria Rotonda. 

30 ' Mausoleum of Adrian,' now the castle of S. Angelo. 

31 'Flavian amphitheatre,' the Coliseum. Byron makes use of the 
story in his stanzas on the Coliseum. Childe Harold, iv. 145. 

9. 4 'Alcuin' of York (735-804) was the friend of Charles the 
Great, and his coadjutor in his great educational reforms. 

5 John Scotus Erigena, realist philosopher, fl. 870 ; Macaulay 
omits him in later editions, probably as being an Irishman. The 
stories of his connection with Oxford are nonsense. 

25 'six generations.' The first plundering raid of the Northmen 
was in 787 ; in 851 or 855 they wintered for the first time in England J 
in ic 13 Swegen was acknowledged as king ; and the Danish wars were 
ended by the accession of Cnut in 1017. 



142 macaulay's history. 

Page 10. 8 Maestricht burned by the Northmen in 882 ; Paris 
pillaged in 865. 

'one of the feeble heirs.' Charles the Simple gave the North- 
men a legal title to the Duchy of Normandy (which they already 
occupied) by the Treaty of St. Clair-sur-Epte, 911. 

27 'a barbarous jargon.' This is not borne out by the remains 
of French poetry, scanty enough however, which date from a time 
previous to the settlement of the Normans. 

28 'they employed it in legislation.' The laws of William the 
Conqueror, written in the language of Northern France, are preserved 
in the History of Crowland, attributed to Ingulphus (Abbot in 1091) ; 
this, however, is a spurious work written in the thirteenth century. 
See Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Manuscripts, ii. 58-64. The 
chronicle is printed in Gale, Reriim Anglic. Scriptores, i. pp. I -107. 

'in poetry.' The earliest epic in the French language, the 
"Chanson de Roland," which was possibly that chanted by Taillefer 
before the battle of Hastings, and was certainly written before 1 100, 
was composed by Turoldus or Theroulde, probably a Norman. Martin, 
Histoire de France, iii. 344 ; see also Hallam, Middle Ages, ii. 496. 

'in romance,' i.e. , the romances of Arthur and the Round Table 
in prose and verse in the twelfth century ; especially the remarkable 
poems on Enid, Lancelot, and Perceval, written (probably between 
1 165 and 1 1 80) by Chrestien de Troyes, the greatest poet of the time. 

32 'drunkenness.' The Normans said: " Angli sua solumnodo 
rura colunt, conviviis et potationibus non praeliis intendunt." Orderic 
Vital, lib. iv., cap. 13; cf. Carlyle's description of the "gluttonous race 
of Jutes and Angles . . . lumbering about in pot-bellied equanimity." 
Frederick the Great, Book iv., ch. iii. (Libr. Ed., vol. i. p. 423.) 

11. 8 ' one of their historians ' : Malaterra ; his history is printed 
in Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, vol. v. 

13 'one Norman knight,' Richard de Clare (Strongbow), Earl 
of Pembroke, invaded Ireland 1 168; his chief opponent was Roderic 
O'Connor, King of Connaught. 

14 'another founded,' etc. Robert Guiscard, 1020-1085 ; he had 
not the title of king, nor was the conquest of Sicily (the island), 
though begun in 1060, finished till after his death. He put to flight 
the Emperor Alexius at Durazzo in 1081, and compelled Henry IV. to 
raise the siege of Rome in 1084. 

17 'a third,' Bohemund, son of Robert Guiscard. It is strange 
that Macaulay does not mention the Principalities founded at Novgorod 
and Kief from 862 to 879. 

20 Tasso, born 1544, died 1595; the Gerusalemme liberata is the 
poem referred to. 

25 ' English princes,' Edward (the Confessor) and Alfred (murdered 
in 1036), sons of ^ithelred and Emma. 



NOTES. 143 

26 'English sees,' Robert, Archbishop of Canterbury 1050 ; Ulf, 
Bishop of Dorchester 1049. See Freeman, Old- English Hist., 258. 

Page 12. 7 'oldest ballads.' The earliest extant ballads date from 
the thirteenth century, and relate to Robin Hood ; there no doubt were 
ballads about Hereward the Wake. 

26 Ireland conquered 1 169-71. Among other Scottish kings, Malcolm 
Canmore and William the Lion did homage to William I. and Henry II. 
On this complicated question see Stubbs' Const. Hist. i. 595-8. 

28 ' matrimonial alliances,' especially marriage of Henry II. with 
Eleanor of Aquitaine, divorced wife of Louis VII. of France. 

3r 'Arabian chroniclers.' See (in Michaud's Bibliotheque des 
Croisades, Part iv., §§ 58-60) Boha-eddin's account of these events in 
1 191 and 1 192. 

33 ' victorious ' is a strange epithet to apply to the march to Ascalon. 
See Boha-eddin (§ 60) and It in. Regis Ricardi, ed. Stubbs, p. 31 1-2. 

13. 8 Hayti (San Domingo) ; part ceded to France 1697, the rest 
being left in the hands of Spain. 

18 'one of the ablest,' Henry I., married Matilda, daughter of 
Malcolm, King of Scots, and Margaret, a princess of the old West- 
Saxon House. The Norman barons called King Henry and his queen 
Godric and Godgifu. Stubbs' Const. Hist. i. 331. 

14. 22 'a trifler and a coward.' For a different view of John's 
character see Green's Short History. 

15. 15 'when John became king,' etc. The author of the 
Dialogns de Scaccario, however, writing in the time of Henry II. says : 
" Sic permixtae sunt nationes, ut vix discerni possit hodie, de liberis 
loquor, quis Anglicus quis Normannus sit genere." Stubbs, Select 
Charters, 201-2. Cf. Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 692. 

18 'the ordinary imprecation.' Giraldus Cambrensis (a.d. 1147- 
1222), in his Vita Galfredi{lVorks, vol. iv., p. 424) charges William of 
Longchamp and his followers with insulting the English, and saying, 
"Anglicus fiam si hoc fecero. Pejor sim Anglico si illud admiserim." 
Longchamp came from beyond sea, and cannot be considered typical 
of men who, though of Norman extraction, had been settled in England 
for generations. Cf. Freeman, Norman Conq. , v. 825-839. 

29 ' sterile and obscure ' — singularly inappropriate epithets. No 
century in the Middle Ages was so prolific of great historical writers as 
the thirteenth century. See the works of Roger of Wendover, 
Matthew Paris, William Rishanger, written during this century in the 
monastery of St. Albans, besides many others. 

16. 12 'Cinque Ports,' Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Romney, 
Hastings. King John was the first to develope the fleet. Macau lay 
perhaps is referring to the sea-fight in 1293. York Powell, 197 ; Stubbs, 
Const. Hist. i. 637, ii. 298. 



144 macattlay's history. 

Page 16. 20 'literature.' For an account of the English literature of 
the thirteenth century see York Powell, Hist, of England, i. 166-170. 
The most notable work was Layamon's Brut, partly translated from 
Wace's poem on the same subject, and written during the reign of 
John. 

17. 14 'knights of Gascony and Guienne.' See The Chronycle of 
Froissart, vol. ii. p. 121. (Berners' translation, ed. 1812.) 

35 Sir John Chandos was "always at the right hand of the Black 
Prince" in the great battles, and was his chief military adviser. Killed 
in 1370. Froissart gives a striking description of him, vol. i. p. 404. 

36 Du Guesclin, Constable of France, and commander of the 
French army. See Hallam, i. 59. 

18. 2 'on the south of the Ebro/ The battle of Navarete, won 
by the Black Prince 1367, was followed by the restoration of Pedro the 
Cruel to the throne of Castile. 

22 ' entered Valladolid ' after the battle of Navarete. 

28 ' Derby', Henry of the Wryneck, son of Henry, Earl of Lancaster, 
became first Duke of Lancester ; his daughter married John of Gaunt. 
He was one of the English captains, and overran Guienne in 1345. 

Hawkwood, the leader of the White Company, one of the bands 
of freebooters which infested Italy in the fourteenth century, is called 
by Hallam "the first real general of modern times." During his later 
years he was in the service of Florence, where he is buried (d. 1394). 

19. 2 'at last aroused,' by Joan of Arc, 1429. 
30 'Comines,' Memoirs, bk. i., ch. vii. 

20. 3 'a line of bastards.' This refers to the Beauforts, 
descendants of John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford ; they had been 
legitimated. Edmund, Duke of Somerset, the last of the male 
descendants, was executed after the battle of Tewkesbury, 147 1. 
Margaret Beaufort was mother of Henry VII. 

4 'a succession of impostors,' Lambert, Simnel, and Perkin 
Warbeck. 

15 'slavery' and 'villenage' are used by Macaulay as interchange- 
able terms. This is misleading ; the two classes are expressly dis- 
tinguished in Domesday Book. The villain was free against everybody 
except his lord. The criminal law made no distinction between free men 
and villains ; the lord was liable to punishment in the royal courts for 
mutilating or killing his villain. The villain had even some political 
rights. Legal theorists in the thirteenth century describe villains as 
slaves ; the Mirror of Justice (end of thirteenth century) says, " The 
villain is no serf in any sense of the word : he is a free man, his 
tenure is a free tenure." See Vinogradoff's Villainage in England, 



NOTES. 145 

Page 21. 30 'refused to accept mitres.' This refers to Guitmund, 
the disciple of Lanfranc. See Lingard, Hist, of England, vol. ii. ch. i. 
p. 37 (fourth edition). 

22. 1 'transports of delight ' (Adrian iv., pope 1154-1159). The 
expression was suggested by a sentence in Lingard : " In England the 
intelligence was hailed with transport." Lingard's authority seems to 
have been the congratulatory letter of Henry II. to the new pope 
(Baronius, Ann. Ecdes. vol. xix. p. 79), and not the work of any 
member of the "despised race." The elevation of Adrian, however, 
clearly possessed a great interest for the people of England. See 
William of Newburgh, Hist. Rerwn Anglic, (ed. Howlett), p. 109- 
112. 

7 'a Norman or a Saxon.' Becket was the son of Gilbert, a 
merchant, and Maud of Rouen. Gilbert's nationality is still uncertain. 

12 'a successor,' Stephen Langton. 

17 Sir Thomas Smith, The Commonwealth of England, book iii. 
ch. x. He died in 1597 ; his evidence cannot be regarded as altogether 
conclusive on the subject. Charters of manumission seem to have 
been usually sold by the lord for money. Madox, Formulare, 416 
et sea. The decay of villenage was due rather to economic causes. 
The church was mainly instrumental in putting down personal slavery, 
but did not use its influence consistently or energetically against the 
institution of villenage. The ecclesiastics were as determined as the 
barons and knights in opposition to the demand for general emancipa- 
tion made by the peasants in the revolt of 138 1. (Stubbs, Const. Hist. 
ii. 479 ; Walsingham, Gesla Abbatum, iii. 285-359, and Hist. Anglicana, 
sub anno 1381.) On the other hand, the clergy favoured the manu- 
mission of individuals, sometimes even on their own estates ; thus the 
Bishop of Chichester, in liberating a serf, writes, in 1536, "Whereas 
at the beginning nature brought forth all men free, and afterwards the 
law of nations placed certain of them under the yoke of servitude, we 
believe that it is pious and meritorious towards God to manumit them, 
and to restore them to the benefit of pristine liberty." Stubbs, iii. 605. 

23. 5 'regarded by the English,' etc. See Fortescue {temp. 
Henry VI.), De Laudibus legum Anglia, and On the Monarchy of 
England. 

6 'enlightened men of neighbouring nations,' Ph. de Comines 
Memoirs, bks. iv. i., v. xix. Comines was born 1447, died 1511. 

24. 17 'when King George the Third,' in 1788. Erskine May, i. 
175 seq. 

25. 11 Bracton (died 1268), judge and author of a great treatise 
De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Anglia, edited by Sir Travers Twiss, 
six vols., 1878-1883. 

L 



146 macaulay's history. 

Page 25. n 'Fleta,' the name of a Latin text-book of English 
law, written about 1 290 ; according to the preface the book was 
written " in Fleta," i.e., probably in the Fleet prison. 

12 ' Mirror of Justice,' written or edited by Andrew Horn, Chamber- 
lain of London (died 1328). 

28 Mainwaring preached the omnipotence of kings in 1627 ; he 
was impeached by the Commons, and made Bishop of St. David's by 
the king. 

26. 33 ' Estates of the realm,' i.e., Lords Spiritual, Lords 
Temporal, Commons. 

28. 27 'gavelkind,' a form of land tenure customary in Kent, 
according to which the land descended not to the eldest son, but to all 
the sons equally. The word is usually derived from Anglo-Saxon 
gafol, rent ; perhaps more correctly from Celtic gabhail, tenure. 

29. 13 'any aid.' Macaulay here follows the unauthentic Latin 
version of the charter De tallagio non concedendo, A.D. 1 297, instead of 
the authentic French version, which is less sweeping and excepts " the 
ancient aids and prises due and accustomed." Stubbs, Select Charters, 
494-8. Edward I. intended by this exception to retain the right to tax 
the towns, etc., on his demesne land. Edward III. reasserted this 
right in 1332. It was finally given up in 1340. Stubbs, Const. Hist. 
ii. 545-6. 

32. 34 Towton, defeat of the Lancastrians, March 29, 1461. 
Bosworth, defeat and death of Richard III., August 22, 1485. 

33. 3 'six of these nine,' Edward II., Richard II., Hemy VI., 
Edward IV. (1470), Edward V., Richard III. ; all except Edward IV. 
lost their lives. 

37 Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy (1419-1467), inherited 
Flanders, and acquired the other provinces of the Netherlands. 

38 Lewis XII. Martin, Hist, de France, vii. 430. 

34. 10 ' confederates of Cambray.' In 1508 Ferdinand of Aragon, 
Lewis of France, Pope Julius II., and Maximilian, Emperor-elect, 
joined together in a league called the League of Cambray, to despoil 
the Venetian Republic. 

35. 2 ' Sir John Howard married,' etc. A mistake. Margaret, 
daughter of Th. Mowbray, was the mother of John Howard, and wife 
of Sir Rob. Howard. 

3 'Sir Richard Pole (d. 1525) married' Margaret, Countess of 
Salisbury (executed 1541). 

36. 6 'eldest son of an Earl of Bedford.' John, Lord Russell, 
eldest son of Francis, Earl of Bedford, sat for Bridport in 14 Elizabeth 
(A.D. 1572). 



NOTES. 147 

Page 37. 9 Buckingham, Edw. Stafford, Duke of, executed 1521 ; 
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, executed 1547. 

12 'a contribution amounting to one-sixth,' in 1525. Hallam, 
Const. Hist. p. 28-9 ; Brewer, Letters and Papers of the Reign of 
Henry VIII. vol. iv. p. lxvii. sea. 

24 Berkeley (Glouc), Edward II. ; Pomfret (or Pontefract), 
Richard II. 

27 'solemnly apologised.' The expression is too strong; the 
authority appears to be Hall's Chron. p. 700 ; Brewer, Letters and 
Papers, vol. iv. p. Ixxxiv. 

38. 26 'forty days.' This was the term for which a feudal army 
was bound to serve. 

39. 22 'the mechanics,' etc. Charles V. reduced the Castilian 
Cortes to impotence in 1538-9. Philip II. turned the Cortes of Aragon 
into a body of royal nominees in 1590. Lodge, Modern Europe, 76, 
103. 

41. 9 'the first insurrection.' For the Albigensian Crusade 
(1203- 1 229) see Martin, Hist, de France, vol. iv. ; or Mil man, Lat. 
Christianity, bk. ix. ch. viii. ; or Hallam, Middle Ages, i. 24 6. 

14 ' the second reformation,' Wiclif and Hus. See R. L. Poole's 
Wyclijfe and Movements for Reform, or Milman's Lat. Chr. 

15 'Council of Constance,' 1414-1418, condemned Hus. 

42. 10 Matthias, a baker, was an Anabaptist who ruled Munster 
and was killed in 1534. Though a wild fanatic, he does not seem to 
have been an "apostle of lust." This description might be given to 
his successor, John of Leyden. Kniperdoling was a citizen of Munster, 
and prominent disciple of Matthias. Robertson's Charles V. p. 251- 
255 (bk. v.). 

44. 11 'country round Rome.' See Macaulay's description of the 
Papal administration in 1838, Life and Letters, ii. 34-5. 

45. 3 ' Jansenists,' so-called from Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of 
Ypres (d. 1638) ; they were opponents of the Jesuits, and approached 
the Calvinists in some of their doctrines, though they acknowledged 
the pope as head of the church. The most famous writer among them 
was Pascal. 

46. 23 Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester 1550, burnt 1555 ; Ridley, 
Bishop of Rochester 1547, of London 1550, burnt 1555 ; Jewel, Bishop 
of Salisbury 1560-71 ; Grindal, Archbishop of York 1570, of Canter- 
bury 1576-83 ; Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich 1560-75 ; Ponet, Bishop 
of Rochester 1550, of Winchester 1551-3. See Burnet's Reformation, 
Strype's Grindal, Neal's Hist, of the Puritans. 



148 macaulay's history. 

Page4!8. 28 'Cranmer, indeed,' *'.<?., while he was engaged, with 
others, in drawing up a confession of faith called "The necessary 
doctrine and erudition of a Christian man," printed 1 543. Dixon, 
Church of England, ii. 307. 

52. 23 * entrusted by Parliament,' etc. See Hallam on the 
permanent establishment of the High Commission Court in 1583. 

30 'set all Europe on fire.' The struggle about lay investiture, 
1075-1122. 

32 'the ministers of the Church of Scotland,' A.D. 1843. This was 
the origin of the Free Church of Scotland. 

53. 24 * Calvinists resisted Charles the Ninth,' in 1562-3 and 
1568-70, under Conde and Coligny. They received support from 
Elizabeth. 

25 ' Papists resisted Henry the Fourth ' at the beginning of his 
reign, 1589. 

Henry III. resisted by Protestants 1574, 1576, and 1585. 
Catholic League formed against him in 1584-9. 

27 ' North of the Trent.' Insurrection under the Earls of North- 
umberland and Westmorland in 1569. 

54. 12 'the great doctors of Strasburg, Martin Bucer; Zurich, 
Bui linger, Gualter, etc. ; Geneva, Calvin. 

56. 28 'a succession of dark plots.' Ridolfi plot, 1571 ; Throg- 
morton's plot, 1583; Babington plot, 1585. 

36 'The Puritans.' Thus Udal (1590) prays for 'the preserva- 
tion of your highness's precious life and happy government ' : Strype, 
J finals, IV., pp. 33, seq. Cf. Penry's Equity of an Humble 
Supplication. (Arber's Scholar's Library, No. 8, p. 57.) 

57. 3 'one of the most stubborn.' Stubbes, a Puritan lawyer in 
1579; he was mutilated for writing a pamphlet against Elizabeth's 
proposed marriage with the Duke of Anjou. Hallam, Constitutional 
History I J 1-2. 

16 'United Provinces.' The Netherlands revolted in 1568; the 
southern Provinces ( = Belgium) were reconquered by Spain ; the seven 
northern Provinces ( = Holland) formed the Union of Utrecht in 1579. 
The War of Independence lasted till 1609. 

18 Philip the Second died 1598. 

59. 22 Mountjoy succeeded Essex in Ireland, and defeated Tyrone 
and the Spaniards, November, 1602. 

60. 25 Vida, fl. 1489- 1566, born at Cremona, patronized by 
Pope Leo X. His poems were printed at Oxford, 1722 and 1731. 



NOTES. 149 

Page 60. 26 Galileo, the astronomer, 1564-1642. In 1633 he was 
compelled by the Inquisition to abjure his "heresy of the motion of 
the earth." 

27 Buchanan (George), 1506- 1582, had a European reputation as a 
scholar. He was a reformer, tutor of James VI., and author of a 
History of Scotland, and other works. 

Napier (John), 1550-1617, inventor of logarithms. 

30 Spenser's View of the State of Ireland (a.d. 1596), in A Collection 
of Tracts . . . Illustrative of Ireland (Dublin, i860), vol. i. p. 498. 

61. 18 'approved by the English Privy Council.' According to 
Poyning's Law, 1494. 

62. 23 ' Milesian' is merely another name for Scots ( = Irish), the 
last of the prehistoric invaders of Ireland, derived from an assumed 
ancestor, Milesius. 

63. 36 Maurice of Nassau, leader of the United Provinces after 
the assassination of his father, William the Silent (1584). 

Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden 161 1, leader of the 
Protestant party in Europe, killed 1632. See Gardiner's Thirty 
Years' War. 

64. 1 Spinola, Spanish general in the Netherlands 1620, etc. 

Tilly (killed 1632), commander of the army of the Catholic 
League, which was formed by Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria. 

16 'his family,' i.e., Frederick V., Elector Palatine, king of 
Bohemia ; husband of Elizabeth, daughter of James I., and father of 
Prince Rupert. 

31 Filmer, Sir Robed:, died in 1653. The Patriarcha, in which he 
developes his theory of divine right, was published in 1680, and 
answered by Locke in his Treatise of Civil Government ten years later ; 
it is printed in Morley's Universal Library. 

66. 19 'the highest authority.' Parliament declared that both 
Mary and Elizabeth were illegitimate, in the Act of Succession passed 
in 1536. (28 Hen. VIII., c. 7.) 

67. 1 'undoubted heir,' through Margaret, eldest daughter of 
Henry VII. 

68. 20 Hammond, a keen high churchman, wrote against the 
Presbyterian Directory for Public Worship 1645 ; died 1660. 

69. 13 Cooper, Bishop of Winchester 1584-94. See his answer 
to Martin Marprelate, printed 1589, in which he argues that no form 
of church government is divinely ordained, but that episcopacy is 
peculiarly suited to the monarchical constitution of England. 



150 macaulay's history. 

Page 69. 14 Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury 1 583-1604. His 
(and Jewel's) opinions on episcopacy are set forth in The Defense of 
the Aunstvere to the Ad??wnition against the Replie of T. C, by John 
Whitgift, 1574. 

34 Dort, Synod at, in 1618. The English bishop was Davenant, 
Bishop of Salisbury. 

70. 3 'reordination,' etc. " It was by the Act of Uniformity (1662) 
that persons not episcopally ordained were, for the first time, made 
incapable of holding benefices." (Note to later editions.) 

71. 9 'doctrine of devils.' 1 Timothy iv. I. 

21 ' nunnery.' This of course is a misrepresentation of the religious 
household at Little Gidding. See Diet, of National Biogj'aphy, under 
Ferrar (Nicholas). 

72. 2 'Lambeth Articles,' 1596. See summary of them in Perry's 
Student' 's English Church Hist. 1509-1717, p 352. 

5 'one clergyman,' William Barret, in a University sermon, April, 
1595 ; his recantation is in Strype's Whitgift, vol. ii. p. 274. 

19 'Arminian controversy.' Arminius (d 1609) and his followers 
opposed the Calvinistic doctrine of absolute predestination, which was 
reasserted against them by the Synod of Dort. 

23 Grotius, famous as a jurist, theologian, historian, and scholar, 
was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for advocating Arminian 
doctrines, and supporting Barneveldt. He escaped soon afterwards, 
concealed in a chest. 

24 Barneveldt, Grand Pensionary of Holland, was executed (1619) 
on the ridiculous charge of betraying his country to Spain, though he 
had been one of the most prominent patriots in the long war of 
Independence. The real grounds were (1) his attempt to curtail the 
power of the Stadtholder, Maurice of Nassau ; (2) his Arminianism 
and his effort to silence the Calvinist preachers. The Synod of Dort 
was responsible for his murder. 

38 'A divine of that age.' Dr. Morley, afterwards bishop of Win- 
chester. The story is from Clarendon's Life, p. 928. 

73. 37 'reiterated declarations.' Calvin's Institutio, lib. ii. cap. 
v 'ii- §§ 3'» 33- Cf. Luther's Tischreden III., 327 (ed. Leipzig, 1846); 
the apostles probably transferred the Sabbath to Sunday with the 
object " dass sie den Leuten aus den Herzen rissen diesen Wahn, 
als waren sie gerecht und fromm urns Gesetzes Willen, wenn sie das 
hielten, und auf das man es gewiss und bestandig dafiir hielte, das 
Gesetz sey nicht nothig zur Seligkeit." Other passages in Luther's 
works seem to point in the direction of the Puritan Sunday : see his 
words on breaking and keeping the fourth commandment : cf. his 
sermon on the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity, and commentary on 
Galatians, ch. iv., 10. 



NOTES. 151 

Page 74. 24 Virginal, an old musical instrument. 
75. 26 'engaged in a war' with Spain, 1624. 

78. 8 ' ancient form of words.' Le roi le veult. 

15 'the promise . . . was broken.' This must refer to the levying 
f customs (tonnage and poundage) without consent of Parliament ; it 
^•as an arguable point whether ihey were included in the Petition of 
Right. Hallam, Const. Hist. 278. 

23 'to make peace' with France, 1630. 

32 'only once,' etc. No Parliament was called between 15 15 and 
1523, nor between 1523 and 1528. 

38 ' most strenuous supporters.' See Clarendon's Rebellion, bk. i. 

79. 19 'apostates.' It is now generally admitted that Wentworth 
was always in theory an upholder of arbitrary government ; at the 
beginning of Charles' reign he sided with the popular party because he 
was opposed to the rule of the vain and incapable Buckingham. 
See any of S. R. Gardiner's books on this period. 

26 'thorough.' This meant a determination to go through with 
any measures which in his opinion were advantageous to the State, 
in defiance of all individual rights or interests and of the law. 

Note. — Strafford's Letters and Despatches were edited by W. 
Knowler, 1739. 

81. 28 Star Chamber remodelled. The Privy Council (which had 
long been accustomed to meet in the Star Chamber) claimed a rather 
indefinite jurisdiction in criminal matters. By an Act passed in the 
third year of Henry VII. this jurisdiction was confined to a committee 
of the Privy Council, which is henceforth called the Star Chamber 
court. 

High Commission created by Elizabeth. That the royal 
supremacy over the church should be directly exercised by a woman 
was likely to shock the public conscience. The queen delegated her 
power to 44 commissioners, who possessed enormous power, and 
adopted the methods of the Spanish Inquisition. The court, however, 
was incompetent to inflict a capital sentence or to extract confessions 
by torture. 

82. 23 Lord Keeper, i.e., of the Great Seal. Noy, the Attorney- 
General, was the first to propose the tax ; Finch (says Clarendon) 
"took up ship-money where Mr. Noy left it." 

83. 2 'the Royalists themselves.' Clarendon describes ship- 
money as being " for a spring and magazine that should have no 
bottom, and for an everlasting supply on all occasions." Rebellion, 
p. 28. 



152 macaulay's history. 

Page 84. 14 Massachusetts, the chief of the New England colonies, 
was founded in 1620. 

85. 6 'they had butchered,' etc. For these events see Buckle's 
Civilization, vol. iii. ch. ii. 

86 21 ' Antiphonies,' plural of antiphon, = anthem, one half of 
the choir answering the other in alternate verses. 

87. 28 Torture was declared illegal by the judges in the case 
of Felton, Buckingham's murderer ; torture could never be inflicted by 
law, it was allowed by custom to be inflicted by prerogative. The last 
person tortured was John Archer, a glover. He had joined in a riot 
against Laud, and it was thought that the rack would make him give 
information against some persons in high position. See Gardiner, 
History of England, vols vi. and ix. 

89. 9 'men who.' This refers to Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton. 
See account of their return in Clarendon's Rebellion. 

25 'act declaring that episcopacy.' Clarendon, Rebellion, 124. 

91. 3-9 Colepepper, Digby, Falkland, and Hyde ( = Clarendon) 
were the king's chief counsellors from the beginning of 1642. Triennial 
Bill passed February, 1641. Lord Lieutenant (of Ireland) — Earl of 
Strafford. 

94. 30 'sanctioned a plan,' i.e., ship-money. 

96. 5 * attainted of treason ' in 1610. 

98. 14 'emigrating to America.' Cromwell said to Falkland, 
" that if the Remonstrance had been rejected, he would have sold all 
he had the next morning, and never have seen England more ; and he 
knew there were many other honest men of the same resolution." 
Clarendon, Rebellion, 125. 

99. 4 ' flagrant violation of the Great Charter.' This must refer 
to the 39th clause, which enacts that no free man shall be imprisoned 
except by judgment of his peers. But what the king demanded was 
the arrest of the members. He always maintained that he intended to 
proceed against them in a legal way, though by this he probably did 
not mean trial by jury. The commons attacked the king's coming to 
their House on the following day (Jan. 4th) as a breach of the 
privilege of Parliament. 

104. 6 ' described by Cromwell.' See his speech in Parliament, 
April 13th, 1657. Carlyle's Cromwell, v. 12, 13. (Speech xi.) 

105. 10 Stratton, in Cornwall, May 16th, 1643. 

13 Bristol surrendered to Prince Rupert in July, 1643. 



NOTES. 153 

Page 105. 19 Court of Arches, the court of appeal of the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. It was for long held in the church of St. Mary de 
Arcubus (which stood where Bow Church now stands), hence the name 
of the court. This church was no doubt selected because, though in 
London, it was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London. 

108. 26 ' Solemn League and Covenant ' sworn to by the Parlia- 
ment in September, 1643 5 not to be confused with the Scotch National 
Covenant of 1638. See Gardiner, A Student's Hist, of England, ii. 
540. This was the price paid by the Parliament for the continued aid 
of the Scotch army. If it had been strictly observed, the Covenant 
would have involved the establishment of the Presbyterian Discipline 
throughout England. But, before this could be done, the Indepen- 
dents had won control of the army. And the Presbyterian Discipline 
seems never to have been enforced beyond London and Lancashire. 

109. 32 Purchase of Commissions abolished in 1871. 

110. IO 'solemn resolutions ' Petition and Vindication drawn up 
by the "Agitators," and presented to Parliament on 30ih April, 1647. 
Clarendon, Rebellion, 610 ; Carlyle's Cromwell, i. 242. Also Gardiner, 
Puritan Revolution, 164. 

111. 28 Turenne, general of the French. Cromwell made an 
offensive alliance with France against Spain in March, 1 65 7. The 
exiled cavaliers fought on the Spanish side. The two armies met 
before Dunkirk, June, 1658. The cavaliers furiously charged the 
Ironsides, "whom," says Clarendon, "though enemies, they were glad 
to see behave themselves so well." Cf. Memoirs of the Duke of York 
(afterwards James II.) in Ramsay's Turenne, vol. ii. p. 500 sea. 

32 'it is acknowledged.' Cf. Clarendon, Rebellion, 619-620. 

112. 3 ' Pelagian.' Pelagius (fl. c. A.D. 400) taught that man's salva- 
tion depended on his own righteousness, not on faith and the grace of 
God. 

17 'in those counties.' Royalist insurrection of men from Wilt- 
shire and Hampshire, at Salisbury, 1655. 

114. 24 'meant to mediate.' See his constitutional scheme "The 
Heads of the Proposals," 1647. Gardiner, Student's Hist. ii. 555. 

115. 30 'his most devoted friends.' See letter of Clarendon to 
Secretary Nicholas, quoted in Macaulay's Essay on Hallam. 

122. 2 ' Northumberland/ and the other three, had belonged to 
the Parliamentary party. 

9 ' the ablest Royalists. ' Clarendon, Rebellion, 838. 

126. 23 ' United Provinces/ April, 1654. Ranke, History of 
England^ iii. 125. 



154 macaulay's history. 

Page 126. 24 'Pirates of Barbary' (Algiers and Tunis). Reduce*! 
by Blake, 1655. 

26 ' one of the finest,' Jamaica. Taken by Penn and Venables, 1655. 

31 ' Huguenots of Languedoc ' (Nismes). Clarendon, Rebellion, 863. 

33 'Augsburg.' Luther and Melancthon drew up the Augsburg 
confession in 15^0. The Vaudois, subjects of the Duke of Savoy, 
were persecuted 1655. (See Milton's sonnet.) On their earlier history 
cf. Milman, Lot. Christianity, v. 392. 

35 'the pope himself.' There is no mention of this in Ranke or 
Carlyle. It appears to be derived from Clarendon. 

38 'the English guns.' The saying is quoted by Clarendon in his 
character of Cromwell (p. 863). 



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